Stephanie Ying

Stephanie Ying

My sketch is a very geometrically organized sketch of Harvard’s campus, as I thought it would be mentally clearer to represent complex areas and buildings as squares or rectangles. Additionally, my map is focused on and generated through two main benchmarks: major Harvard buildings or landmarks and the streets that cut through the campus and more specifically their directionality. The first of the two is rather simple, as I spatially oriented Harvard landmarks as points of interest because they are structures that are most familiar and frequented for me. However, as I found it rather difficult to properly orient these landmarks, it was helpful to utilize the second benchmark. I visualized my common walks to each of the buildings and how the cars on that street move, which surprisingly helped me in orienting the landmarks in an effective way. As the streets in Cambridge are quite random and also one-way, each one is distinct and memorable in my mind, and I especially thought of which way I turn to see if there are cars before I cross the street to help me orient myself. Thus, overall I think my commute and what I visualize during these walks is what defines and stands out in my sketch. I also started my sketch in the landscape orientation but after trial and error realized that portrait was more suitable. After comparing my sketch to Google maps, my map was more or less accurate in terms of spatial orientation, which surprised me. Although I did make some errors in the directionality of my streets, I think the biggest error was in the placement of the streets themselves, which are extremely intricate and complex. The streets in my sketch were also much simpler than in reality, and I think this difference suggests that we view the city through a less complicated lens in terms of the streets themselves and how we navigate them. When we walk, we don’t think about how much the street curves or how many intersections it has in total. Instead, we are just trying to get to our destination, which is how I oriented my map when thinking about walking to each landmark.