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OSHA and Hazard Mapping classes facilitated by Jack Angel, Nathan Maynard and Warren Rasmussen, mid-July 2014 in Carlsband, N.M.
Cartographer Matt Dooley, professor of Geography and Geographic Information Science, creates gunpowder maps of rivers using a paper stencil, paper, plywood and gunpowder. When the gunpowder ignites, it leaves dramatic marks on the paper below.
photos by Kathy M Helgeson Research: Our Polluted Waterways: A Gunpowder Mapping Project
Al Anderson, the oldest student of the former Defense Mapping School, is applauded at the 100th Anniversary of the organization.
I found the podcast “Mapping” to be interesting to listen to because I’ve known about “This American Life” for a couple months through episodes on Netflix. I thought the episodes were very enlightening because they shed light on the unique lifestyles of American people that you might not ever hear about otherwise. This particular podcast relates to the overall theme of the show – to examine the unknown lifestyles of people in this country. In this case, people are replaced with the five senses.
I really liked the part where the narrator explained that the podcast intended to demonstrate how people have become desensitized to society, that we live throughout the day in a catatonic state and miss all the glorious details that are present in virtually everything. This reminded me of a topic I wrote about in a previous class that had to do with our increasing reliability on technology to communicate. We rely so heavily on texting, Facebook or blogging to express ourselves (ironically stated through a blog for class…hehe), and many people are choosing to hide behind a virtual alias instead of having an organic, face-to-face conversation with someone. This podcast is similar in that we are decreasing our interaction our surroundings; we’re not having as many face-to-face conversations with nature as we used to, so to speak. We’re missing out on little details that have the same level of importance as the big picture.
I loved the part about the electronic nose, as weird as it was to listen to. I think mapping the world based on smells would be a really cool way to teach about the diversity of world cultures, or to even explain history. The development of our country could be explained through smells that had to do with major events, like the smell of gunpowder from the American Revolution or explosives for mining in the nineteenth century.
I agree with the podcast’s message that people need to learn to pay better attention to their surroundings. It’s so easy to miss a beautiful moment by simply keeping your eyes forward. Stop and look around once in a while, and you may even find something new and wonderful about a familiar place.