January 14, 2008
Mapping emotions onto the city streets:
Christian Nold maps cities. But instead of mapping their physical layout, he maps their emotional geography.
He uses a technique he invented called biomapping where participants walk the area connected to a system that measures galvanic skin response - a measure of the electrical resistance of the skin which is known to give a rating of arousal and stress.
The system is also connected to a GPS device, so the stress response of each person is physically mapped onto the landscape.
His maps describe an area in terms of how stressful it is, and so far, he's mapped Greenwich in London, San Francisco and Stockport.
He's also done a project that maps the sensory experiences of Newham.
I had the pleasure of meeting Christian the other night and one of the best things is is that he's persuaded Ordinance Survey, the UK's mapping agency, to print the maps!
I have a copy of the Greenwich map and so far everyone I've showed it to has been blown away.
You can buy paper copies of the maps, but also view them in full detail online.
Link to Emotion Map.
Link to Christian Nold's website.
