An artistic perspective on individual space–time flows

Cartographically, there are now many ways of depicting the spatiotemporal life of human individuals, from flow and animated maps to 3D space-time cubes. However, these scientifically led representations have limited expressive potential for the emotional and inner life of these individuals. Artistic visual forms have been identified as a resource to bring such qualitative communication to and alongside maps. In the ‘Journey as a Flow' project we attempt to represent the geometry and motivation of everyday human motion in relation to various points in the environment and within an environment of other individual flows. We have produced various visual artwork sketches in order to understand the wide range of environmental flows of an individual as well as one's perception of them. We used the space-time cube (i.e. time-geographic aquarium) as a starting point, dictated by the need to create a functional tool in which space and time were both visible, as well as having potential as a 3D tangible object for physical exhibition. This forms the basis for analyses of displacement, interaction and perception. All the modifications of this established geospatial visualisation are inspirations and incorporations from art disciplines. The project outputs therefore include inspirations from cine-plastic art and Escher’s perspective drawings, but the main part of it draws from the Italian renaissance concept of the image conceived as a framed window through which we look at the world. The idea of central perspective has also been used to portray spaces as a flow toward a specific destination. The overall set of representations depict a dynamic version of human lives, while the set of various metaphors deployed drive an artistic interpretation of how some people can perceive (their own / other) flows during their journey. A transformation has therefore occurred from a temporal flow would be conventionally spatial to one that assumes platial properties (i.e. an individually led geography of place).