Back on Ebay!

Contrary to prevailing advice we have decided to list a few things on Ebay again. The original panel above, showing an airport, a Void Defense Wall (VDW), and an encroaching Void, is currently available on Ebay for $222. There is also a nice selection of prints at $14. Take a look!

The Inner Workings

Hey everyone! I'm Dylan Lettinga, Jerry's cousin and intern here up at Fake Rock Farm working on the various cartographic duties as ordained by the cards. I've been lucky to get work with family as awesome as this before I head off to college, and the work has been nothing but fun. To go into a little more detail about the work I do here: it works in a similar fashion to the way the map is created, the cards assemble a list of chores for the intern(s), it can be anything like scanning images to updating them in the computer's folders. Some days it would be photocopying images to work toward the overall goal to have three complete versions of The Map and to have a full sale stock, or assembling various map scales like 4 x 4 or 8 x 8 tiles using our new map assembly software. Or in this case, I make an appearance on the blog. There's a seemingly endless stream of panels and things to update in order to keep things "high-tech", and we're toying with idea of a computer game based around the map. This is a truly amazing project that I get to be a part of, and great that you all can keep up with it as well.

The Latest Numbers

The population of the Map as of the latest census (1145) was 16,678,978. There were 29 parishes and 467 cities.

The largest cities were:
     1. Ukrainia              2,431,338
     2. Geo                        1,693,938
     3. Leyemouth         1,496,242
     4. Sabratha              1,048,334
     5. Wybourne              870,946
     6. Fields West             713,634
     7. Southchurch         673,740
     8. Nelleville                 603,140  
     9. Jackson                    586,034 
   10. Gebel                        443,338

As of the last inventory (7/22/14) the Map was composed of 3,169 panels covering 2,255.6 square feet. The maximum East-West dimension is 46.7 feet, and the maximum North-South is 48.3 feet. When it is exhibited with one inch spacing between panels, the maximum East-West dimension is 52.5, the maximum North-South is 53.2.

Subscribe today!

Sometimes I lie in bed imagining how new techniques or rules would affect the Map. And sometimes I lie there trying to think of new ways of underwriting my Mapping costs. Here's one: you, because you really believe in this wacky project and want to help support it, subscribe to receive a monthly signed print from me! If you bought these prints individually they would cost $14 each plus $5 shipping. Six of them would cost you $114.

So. how about a half-year subscription for $99? Good deal! Or maybe a whole year for $175? You'd get a copy of the first panel drawn each month.

The one above, by the way, was the first July panel that I worked on.

How 'bout it? Email me at sgattic@aol.com if you want to get on board. Thanks!

Deciphering the Map language: a challenge!

The name of the town on the panel above is, in Map Language, Pusuj Sofif. Can you determine what the name would be in English? I'll let you know as soon as someone has given me the right answer.

The Map Language, now abandoned by most of the parishes, is still in use in a handful, most notably New Ukraine.

Palimpsest or pentimento?

Well neither, really, though both terms come to mind when I describe my process for reworking the panels of my Map. Thanks to modern technology I can scan and reprint a panel without having to erase physically the image or overpaint it in order to revise it.

Shown above is the panel which came up in this morning's draw of the cards. I've applied a grid to guide my collage of one-inch squares that will re-interpret the painted shapes. The original version of this sheet is now preserved in my studio archives.

A few panels have undergone as many as eight revisions. Most panels are in their third or fourth generations.

More cards!

Here's another group of nine cards which were recently retired. Well, they weren't exactly retired but were replaced by copies of themselves. The cards get thicker as I amend the instructions by putting labels over the old ones. Then the deck, comprised currently of 114 cards, becomes nearly impossible to shuffle. So, it became necessary for me to instruct myself to make copies of some which were becoming too thick.

I find that I am having to revise the instructions almost with every draw in order to accomplish certain tasks I have set for myself. I am trying, for example, to make two complete exhibition sets because of overlapping shows scheduled for 2015. I am about two-thirds of the way there. In addition to the two show sets I have one complete current working set which will stay in the studio so that my work is never interrupted. The three sets together will account for almost 10,000 panels!

Let me know if you have questions about any of the cards above.