On the Map: Illustrating the Underlying Structure of On the Road

[fishwax]

I saw these earlier this week and thought they were both fascinating and beautiful. The artist, Stefanie Posavec, counted words and sentences in Kerouac's On the Road, keeping track of how many words were in each sentence and how many words and sentences were devoted to various characters and themes. She then produced these illustrations, which provide a graphic illustration of the structure of the text.

In this illustration, for example, every cluster represents a different chapter in the book. Every stem in each cluster represents a paragraph in that chapter. Every bloom off the stem represents a sentence in that paragraph. The color and size of the bloom signify the topic and the length of the sentence.

I think it's a pretty amazing project, and thought some others in the lounge might like it too. You can find a few more of her On the Map illustrations here: http://www.notcot.com/archives/2008/04/stefanie_posave.php

[fishwax]

1. kick

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