Artist poses as tourist to create map of Manhattan from directions by strangers

Nobuta Aozaki

From Here to There

2012 -

Questions, various pens and paper
10' x 3' 2" Dimensions variable  

A map of Manhattan composed of hand-drawn maps by various New York pedestrians whom the artist asked for directions.

Pretending to be a tourist by wearing a souvenir cap and carrying a shopping bag of Century 21, a major tourist shopping place, I ask various New York pedestrians to draw a map to direct me to another location. I connect and place these small maps based on actual geography in order to make them function as parts of a larger map.
 (image as of June 15th, 2012)

After reading Psychological Maps of Paris by Stanley Milgrim, I immediately thought of Nobuta Aozaki's piece From Here to There. Milgrim discusses how parisians mentally represent their city. One part, he has participants hand draw a map of Paris and to include all of the elements of the city that came to mind and to draw the map in their personal view rather than a tourist type map. The outcome is similar to the individual directions that Nobuta collected and conjoined. 

Example of hand drawn maps in Psychological Maps of Paris