You Are Here NYC: Art, Information, and Mapping

YOU ARE HERE NYC: ART, INFORMATION, AND MAPPING
Curated by Katharine Harmon, author of You Art Here – NYC: Mapping the Soul of the City, with Jessie Braden, Director, Spatial Analysis and Visualization Initiative, Pratt Institute

September 22–November 15, 2017
Opening reception: Thursday, September 21, 6–8 PM

Artists, designers, and data analysts include: Kim Baranowski; Alexander Chen; Xingying Du, Michelle Htar, and Jessica Silverman; Nicholas Fraser and Heidi Neilson; Neil Freeman; Christine Gedeon; Daniel Goddemeyer, Moritz Stefaner, Dominikus Baur, and Lev Manovich; Jill Hubley; Ekene Ijeoma; Bettina Johae; Jerome Marshak; Christopher Mason/MetaSUB team; Doug McCune; John Nelson; Jenny Odell; Perkins+Will / Quilters without Borders; Erica Sellers; Herwig Scherabon; Chris Whong.

Pratt Manhattan Gallery presents You Are Here NYC: Art, Information, and Mapping, an exhibition of New York City maps and cartography-based artworks. The exhibition features a selection of contemporary artists, designers, and data analysts who address a question currently surfacing in the art/design zeitgeist: in what forms can information visualization become art, and how can artists make data visible? Together the works in this exhibition, all maps of the city, show a melding of information visualization and artistic endeavor. Each piece can be placed on a continuum, with art on one end and data visualization on the other, and ranging between adjectives: ambiguous/concrete, personal/public, intuitive/objective, informational/emotional. No matter where the maps fall, their creators are communicating underlying verities—whether evidence-based truths or more pliant, relative “truths”—about life in an endlessly fascinating and dynamic metropolis.

In recent decades, increasing numbers of artists have used mapping imagery and concepts in their work—and more recently, elements of data analysis. Simultaneously, geospatial analysts are grasping the importance of strong information visualization. As a hallmark of this exhibition, Pratt Manhattan Gallery commissioned three artists to create works based on a specific set of census data focused on New York City’s immigrant population. Their challenge was to combine artistic precepts, analytical skills, and cartography to provide insights about some of the city’s most vulnerable residents. The resulting works by Christine Gedeon, Ekene Ijeoma, and Doug McCune show that artists can bring much to data visualization—offering inventive ways of enhancing our understanding of city life.

Monday–Saturday 11–6, Thursday until 8
Closed on federal holidays and between exhibitions