Maria McLaughlin

Maria McLaughlin

My map of Harvard took up a lot more paper than I thought it would. When I was brainstorming the individual parts on a notebook, I tended to be very detailed with the shapes of the buildings, and I made them particularly large. This meant that I was struggling to fit all of the pieces together into the giant map, without accidentally drawing buildings too large or confusing the proportions.

My proportions and levels of detail are directly related to the importance they held in my mind and my knowledge of them. The River houses are therefore very detailed and my housing, Dewolfe, is pictured as the largest of all of them, although it is the smallest. The Yard takes up the large center portion of my map because I see it as the middle of campus and the hub of Harvard. Likewise, because most of my classes take place in the Science Center, that building was significantly larger and more prominent than Sever or the Fogg or even Widener.

I found this exercise to be rewarding because I am noticing more of the campus on my daily walks through it. I now have a greater appreciation for the buildings, streets, and park benches that I had excluded from my map and from my memory.