Uncharted Imagination

The 21st Leonardo Challenge

The 21st Challenge: Uncharted Imagination

Not long ago travelers consulted paper maps distributed by service stations gratuitously, but difficult to refold. Today watches, phones and cars themselves provide directions, sometimes with animated updates and commentary voiced in dulcet but skeptical tones. A decade has transformed the ancient arts of cartography radically. Early maps recorded star patterns that marked changing seasons. Now the celestial robots of GPS guide us to lost car keys. Early maps defined the boundaries of unknown territories. Now we wonder if there is any space unmapped. We need a map to track the changing meanings of all these maps.

Call for Entries
Benefit Reply
Leonardo Off the Grid
The Challenge
The Benefit
Design & Thanks
The Invitation
Links Worth Following
Pictures

Call for Entries

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Download Leonardo Challenge Call for Entries 2015.pdf (pdf, 39.0kb)

Benefit Reply

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Download the Benefit Reply 2015.pdf (pdf, 29.8kb)

Leonardo Off the Grid

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Leonardo was a cartographer by instinct. He knew the astronomy, charts and tools that launched his contemporary Columbus and the Age of Discovery. Leonardo mapped a canal system for Florence and wetlands drainage for Rome with an engineer’s precision. His exquisite aerial view of Imola lets us see that his mind, at least, had mastered flight. Leonardo’s maps are tools of mind. As an artist he uses a grid to expand paintings; as a mapmaker, he models the world on a grid. In his notebooks, he arranges words in relational configurations to visualize concepts that resemble the maps that whiteboards collect in modern design studios.

The Challenge

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Maps organize the known and the unknown. This is the Challenge: take a known map or map idea and transform it. Find a purpose, form, or message that is far from its creator’s perspective.
Map once meant a piece of cloth, a rendering in two dimensions. Leonardo’s contemporaries had constructed globes. Now maps adorn every material and geometry imaginable. Now maps explore beyond three dimensions.

Use color and illustration for clarity or purposeful obscurity. Or both. Conceal or reveal treasures.

The Benefit

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Leonardo da Vinci painted with unrivaled vision, explored science with modern logic and invented with pure imagination. The Leonardo Challenge celebrates one of his inventions: improvisational creativity. One hundred artists, designers and playful spirits will transform a common object – this year, the map– with wit, whimsy and artistry.

The April 23rd Benefit will revel in those artists’ creativity. Through their generosity and yours, the evening will support workshops and outreach to guide a next generation deeply into known realms and boldly to uncharted horizons.

Design & Thanks

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DESIGN: SALLY HILL. With thanks to Mark at Royal Printing, John at Quality Printing, and Paul at B-P Products for their generous help and guidance in the production of this invitation. Printed using map pages from 10 copies of The National Geographic Atlas of the World, Editions 4 and 5. The map above is a Protected, Military 4-Quadrant Map fold.

The Invitation

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Animation of opening the invitation

Links Worth Following

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Bellerby & Co. Globemakers
Where You Are
Vox.com: Maps
Map of Sub-Marine Cables

Pictures

Click images to enlarge.

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2015 invite cover 800px

Leonardo Challenge 21st banner2

Treasure Map Save the Date

Alexis Brown Put a Bird on It

Amy Estebrook Leo Birth Horoscope

Amy Peters A Checked Political Map

Anita Soos Thirty-Eight Consolations

Ann Langdon Mapping a Portal

Anna Goodgridge Fan of Maps

Anne Oberkirsh Gone

Anthony Calia-Bogan Geographic Enneacontahedron

Audrey Rock The Heart of New Haven

Beth Klingher New Haven More than Nine Squares

Betsy Kellem Thar Be Monsters Here

Betsy Kellem You Can't Get There From Here

Buck Bailey Carcassonne

Bu Lei Ta Gliese 581

Carol Graves Unraveling A World Apart

Chris Horton Where in the World did I Put It

Courtney Tracy Star Map

Dana Clough Aldeyjarfoss Iceland

Daniel Eugene My Dreaming...

Danna Jennings Maphatten

Donald Carter Avant Garde Couture

David Moulton Triptych Detecta

Delari Johnston Cat Pillows

Delari Johnston Telly Ortelius

Donald Clark Elm City Teapot

Dromara Group Dislexc Maps

Dromara Group Some States in No Particular Order

Dromara Group Time

Eli Baum A-MAZE-ing solver

Eli Baum Augmented Reality Sandbox

Elizabeth Geuther The Rest Stop and Bird House

Ellen Cohn Atolls

Ellen Papciak Rose Smart Ass

Enid Sherry Year of the Ram

Eric Epstein I Map New Haven

Ethel Berger Garden Map a Bird's View

Eunice Mahler Life Journey

Francine Giaimo Vinyard Fox

Greg Spiggle You Can't Get There From Here

Gritli Rabin Music Map

Hannah Clark Hamden's Sleeping Big Bird

Holly Whiting Marmo Italiano

Jackie Heitchue Compass Rose

Jan Van Elswyk Cubas Gold

Jane Rudnick Namaste

Jayne Crowley Latitudes

Jennifer Davies Freedom Box'

Jim Goodridge Downeast Table

Joan Fitzsimmons Little Construction Map

Joanna Danielewicz Peace on Earth

Josh Revkin Table

Judy Rosenthal Ephemeral Cities

Kiara Matos 9 Squares Plate

Kiara Matos The Green's Lower Half

Kiara Matos The Green

Kiran Zaman Gaea

Leila Daw All You Need to Know

Leslie Carmin Remapping Home

Lin Elmo New Directions

Linda Lindroth Earthquake

Linda Lindroth India

Lisa Hodes Beads Eye View

Lisa Hodes Bracelet

Lisa Hodes Earrings

Liz O'Connor Charts? Who Needs Charts?

Maria Lara-Whelpley Wave Map 2

Mark McCarthy Cat Mapping

Mark Previtt Hopes and Dreams

Martha Lewis Time Fold

Martha Savage Box of Cards

Mary Murphy The Mohawk Trail

Mary Wolff Weather Map Doppler

Mickey Koth World Traveller

Mollie Keller Map Pocket

Molly Gambardella Never Without

Nancy Eisenfeld Where Are You

Nilda Gagliardi Broadway Boogie Woogie

Nilda Gagliardi New Kid on the Block

Patricia Acorda Explore

Polly Fiddler Vacation in Vieques

Rachel Paupek Untitled

Randy Siress Concertina

Rob Gagliardi Cranes

Rob Gagliardi Map Cranes

Rob Lisak State Capitols

Sabrina Ferriaolo Giant Crane

Sandy Rhodes You Are Here

Sarah Afragola Andy Was Here

Sarah Afragola Where is Here

Sarah Afragola Greatest Treasure A

Sarah Afragola Greatest Treasure B

Sarah Sorenson Last Hand Map

Shannon Velazquez MAPle View

Sharon Hirsch Bowl

Sherie McGregor Get Lost... Find The World

Steve King I Map You Quilt

Sue and David Bennet MAP

Suneeth Keerthy Topographic Luncheon Plate

Susan Clinard If The Stars Align

Susan Clinard Mapping a New Home

Susan Clinard Topography

Susan Clinard Journey Forward

Terri Dagradi Cushing Tour and Drawings

Terri Dagradi Finding the High Line

Tim Nighswander Sarcophagus

Tim Nighswander Unfolding Universe

Tom Mason Charted Waters

Vincent Esposito Road Map to Hell

Willow Sirch Go Well Jacket

Wm Brown My First Map

Eli Whitney Museum

The 21st Leonardo Challenge