Map of the Day: Futuristic Searchscape

The Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU is always a good source of infographics and maps. There's just one problem-- often we have no idea what the diagram actually depicts. Take for instance the "tridimensional map" above, entitled "Searchscapes". Julie Yamashita explains her work as follows:

The intent of "Searchscapes" is to design a tridimensional map of Manhattan using existing data from the web. The objective is to compare representations of the city’s “physical spaces” and “information spaces”. Taking the metaphor very literally, a specific address is searched on Google (ex: “1 Broadway” + “New York, NY”). SUch a search will bring mostly results that correspond to this specific location. The total number of text results is parsed and then plotted on a map of the physical space. The height of the “building” on that location will correspond to the number of results found. More results will correspond to higher “information buildings”. This is an attempt to materialize information: to give it dimension, physicality. This project is an attempt to give “shape” to the data that we find on the Internet, but not “quantify”.

Okay-- we're not exactly sure what that means, but it definitely looks cool. Nice work, Julie!