I have become obsessed with mapping.
More precisely: I have become obsessed with Google Maps. I love how they let you carve out geography. I really love how you can put them on top of Google Earth and fly around and view all the different sites. I love how you can tell a story in — or laid on — the place it took place. I have made maps of the places I have and had not had sex, and maps of my childhood neighborhood.
And now I want us all to make a map together. I really want us all to make a couple of maps together, but we will begin at the beginning.
Your assignment, should you choose to accept it: tell us the story of a place you feel strong on the Google map linked below:
View Feministe: Strong Geography. in a larger map
This is how you do it:
1) You need to be logged into a Google account — any Google account — to edit the map. If you are worried about anonymity and do not have a throwaway Google account, please email me: interestingDELETETHISPARTtwice at gmail dot com(munism) and I have a solution worked out. Note it might take me a little minute to reply during the day because I am at clown school and largely offline.
2) Click on the map pictured above. Note that it does encompass the whole world. I can’t figure out how to get it to zoom out to the whole world without breaking the embed code; PLEASE do not let Google Maps’ US-centrism make our map similarly US-centric.
3) Click that little “Edit” button.
4) Some tools will pop up in the map window. Select the blue marker, and drag it to where you want to leave a point. Tell the story in the window! Tell us about it! What happened?
5) If you want to give it a funny or custom marker, click on the picture of the marker in the box where you add text, and it will give you the option to choose amongst Google’s options or even to upload your own.
Awesome! I will be checking on that map, so don’t pull any funny business. If this goes well, I have a second project for next week, so let me know what you think about this sort of thing in the comments.