Thoughts on faith, life, and art.

1. Data Visualization Map of Colombia 

      My wife, Andrea, was born and raised in Colombia. It is one of our favorite places to go visit. Most of her family lives there, and we have so much fun every time we go. Not only is it one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen, it has the most delicious food I've ever eaten, and the most hospitible people I've ever met. I mean, just look at the view! I took this photo from Monserrate overlooking downtown Bogotá—you know, just a casual 11,000 feet above sea level. Incredible. 
     In her grandmothers house, there is a beautiful 3D topographical map of Colombia hanging in the living room. Andrea's grandfather was a talented artist, and he is the one who made the map. Andrea grew up with it, and has always loved staring at that map. Personally, I love all kinds of maps and have always been fascinated by them. With our common love for Colombia, and specifically our affinity for the map of Colombia—it just seemed like the right thing to do to hang one on our wall. But, we couldn't just slap any old map of Colombia up on the wall. It had to be something hand crafted, elegant, and beautiful.
     We've looked but never been able to find a map of Colombia that we wanted to buy. For years now, I have kicked around the idea of making one myself. But, I couldn't compete with the detail and excellence of her grandfather's map. Besides, as amazing as that map was from a craftsman's perspective—it didn't quite fit our aesthetic. We both wanted something a little more modern and minimal. However, I wanted to retain a certain level of detail. As we honed in on things we liked, and things we didn't—two things began to be clear to me. First, we weren't going to be able to find what we were looking for. It just didn't exist. And second, what we were looking for, was totally something that I could make myself.

Abuelito’s map

     Instead of a topographical map of Colombia, I decided to look at different data sets surrounding the country. It didn't take long, and I decided to break out a spreadsheet to break down the population data for each state. Besides, what's art without a spreadsheet, right!? Anyway, I had never played with data visualization before, so this seemed like as good an opportunity as any. As it turned out, the data had a wide enough spread that it would make for quite an interesting 3D map. I made a digital model based on a detailed map of the country that I made, and decided to scale it up to the size I wanted and use our laser cutter to cut out all the shapes.

The digital design / prep work based on the population data of Colombia.

Once all the design work was done, I laid everything out for the laser to cut and hit print. I was going to cut the pieces out of wood, but since we had a ton of old Amazon and Target boxes laying around, I decided to make the prototype out of cardboard. The joke was on me though, because I ended up liking the cardboard one so much that I didn’t even bother to make it again out of wood. Anyway, I took all the individual pieces and glued them together so that each state (they call them departments in Colombia), was the correct height based on highest to lowest population.

Then I test assembled everything by putting it all together like a giant jigsaw puzzle. It worked even better than I had imagined! The pieces were so precise, I didn’t even have to use glue for them to hold together.

To finish it off, I took it all back apart and painted the individual pieces.

Then I reassembled everything (and this time I used glue).

And here’s the final result! It turned out even better than I’d imagined!

(posted 02-07-23)