James Chapman is a doctoral student in physics with a consuming passion for comics, graphic design and art.
Springfield, no not the home of the Simpsons, but Springfield, Massachusetts the home town of Dr. Seuss, has announced plans to open the world’s first museum dedicated to the beloved children’s book author. The Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum is set to open in June of 2016 as part of the Springfield Museum complex. The “Seusseum” will include books, artifacts, artwork, and recreations of a “Seussian” version of locales in old Springfield that inspired Theodor Seuss Geisel’s iconic books. The museum will also expand the current adjacent Dr. Seuss National memorial Sculpture Garden.
Even in this golden age of digital travel photography, I still love old fashioned travel postcards. I’m not embarrassed in the least to admit that I still return home from most trips with a stack of kitschy cards.
The very talented London-based, Italian artist Caterina Rossato has elevated the humble travel postcard to high art with her remarkable 3D collages. Layering cut-outs from multiple postcards, she creates unique sculptural landscapes.
Rossato is currently the artist in residence at the Fondazione Bevilacqua La Massa in Venice. You can see more of her imaginative work on her website.
Visitors to the U.S. are often shocked to discover that we have only one truly nationwide bookstore chain remaining. That company, Barnes & Noble, has just 700 stores unevenly spread around the country. The past few years, B&N has strayed widely from its literary roots with more and more shelf space devoted not to printed books, but to gifts, gadgets and e-readers. But now the chain is once again promoting itself as the place for books with a neat set of shopping bags that feature the first pages of classic novels, such as Alice in Wonderland, Moby Dick, The Wizard of Oz, and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
The Red Cross has teamed up with major airports in Sweden to help relieve travelers of their spare change while waiting for flights or luggage. Stockholm’s Arlanda and Goteborg’s Landvetter are the first airports to replace traditional collection boxes with arcade games like Space Invaders, Pac-Man and Galaga. If the concept works out, the Red Cross hopes to install arcade game boxes in more European airports.
If you are strolling the High Line in NYC during the next month or two, you may want to take step off for a short detour to visit the Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery in Chelsea for a fantastic new exhibition. Luminous Words showcases the wonderful book art by Seoul-based artist Airan Kang. Her radiant digital lighting books and photorealistic paintings of books with LED marquees paintings explore the ontology and evolution of the book as a source of intellectual illumination in our digital age.
Back in the day, the only way for most folks to travel long distances in the U.S. was by bus. Most of the regional bus companies have disappeared due to the ease and affordability of air travel and the near universal auto ownership in the States. But for nearly a century the Jefferson Lines has been transporting travelers across the Midwest. From Kansas City to Minneapolis and from Fargo to Billings, the Jefferson Lines has provided efficient, inexpensive and comfortable travel options.
Not long ago, the company commissioned a wonderful series of retro-styled travel posters to celebrate some of their popular scenic routes. I hope that they’re going to cover the rest of the system, because these graphic route maps are just terrific.
The mind-boggling short video below is a visualization of 562,145 journeys on London’s Underground network.
Guide book author/travel show host/tourism consultant Doug Lansky gave a thought provoking TED Talk in Stockholm on the sad state of travel today. Much of his critique was spot on—though a tad elitist. As a former guide book writer, I really liked his suggestion to “travel like a guide book writer, not a guide book reader”. What’s your take?
TeleGeography’s newly updated “Submarine Cable Map” is a wonderful tribute to the Golden Age of mapmaking incorporating historical elements of Medieval and Renaissance cartography. The fantastic map, which details 299 undersea communication cables, brings back a lost aesthetic of whimsical and fanciful details that once embellished European maps.
Whether you are a cartography geek, or just interested in the in the mechanics of digital communication technology, you will want to visit the TeleGeography site to check out the interactive version of this cool map. If you are really into it, there’s a beautiful print of the map for sale too.
Travel Between The Pages 