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November 10, 2011
8-Bit NYC
Urban Media Archaeology
8-Bit NYC is, in the words of its creator Brett Camper, “a lo-fi web map of New York City, inspired by 8-bit video games.” Camper created a rendering engine that analyzes 16×16 pixel tiles of the OpenStreetMap to determine the individual tiles’ content (a road, a park, etc.) and replace it with the appropriate 8-bit style bitmap tile. 8-Bit NYC can be considered “fake 8-bit” in the sense that it essentially takes higher fidelity OpenStreet maps and down-samples them, effectively stripping information that was once available.
...My application of the map explicitly applies 8-Bit NYC’s implied heroic quest to its basemap. Perhaps to Alison Sant’s dismay, 8-Bit’s lo-fi orthogonal geometry makes a great canvas on which to affix a narrative. With a few additions, 8-Bit NYC can make for a provocative tool in telling a story, combining the similar nostalgia of antique illustrated maps and video games’ linear progression. Draw a path from Manhattan through Brooklyn Heights, where I’ve added a few 8-bit skyscrapers, and toward Atlantic Yards, and we can see a simple movement of vertical development starting in the city, crossing into Brooklyn and creeping toward its center. Using hallmarks of video game good and evil, we can illustrate the use of eminent domain in Atlantic Yards as a monstrous bulldozer, plowing down Snoopy and his house. Not the most nuanced argument, but there are certainly circumstances where such reductions could be useful.
My Atlantic Yards application:
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Posted by eric at November 10, 2011 10:42 AM