This project allowed me the opportunity to really consider my relationships with those around me as well as the different ways maps are represented. I chose to use the photos my peers took of me seeing as they each represent an interaction I had with them. To show how close (or how often I’ve interacted) with each of them, I focused on the scale of my images and made them either larger or smaller in respect to the others – the larger to photo, the closer I consider us to be. After taking scale into account, I then went ahead and drew/pasted illustrations on the photos, every illustration stemming from either a memory I share with that person or things that remind me of them. I felt that each photo deserved to stand on its own to show everyones individuality and then connected them all with thread – thread often times being used in maps as well as also being a material used to sew with, which comes with the idea of bringing things together. In creating this piece, I printed the photos my peers took of me using my iPhone onto matte paper, cropped them so that my body was taking up most of the composition, pasted them onto gray sheets of paper that acted as borders, drew my illustrations on them using Art Stix or cut and paste, and connected them all using thread.
