the singapore river as a psychogeographical faultline

I have been drafting a huge map of the Singapore River area in preparation for a psychogeographical game to be conducted during the exhibition. While playing with googlemaps and crosschecking to see if i missed out any other landmarks this evening, I noticed that google earth is the same as google satellite except with a little bit of perspective to it.

Google Satellite



Google Earth



Animated for comparison

I've also figured out that what gives gothere.sg its unique look (and sets it apart from the other free singapore map services out there) is its additional 0.5 dimension to it, which helps provide some degree of perspective. Interestingly before this realisation, I had already decided that the map would have to have some manner of "projection" like Erwin Raisz's awesome handdrawn maps.



gothere.sg

Erwin Raisz is an American cartographer famous for the detail and readability of his maps, and for having created an armadillo-like projection which was similar to an isometric projection. Likewise I think the large map I draw will need to have some awareness of projection as it improves the readablity of maps - perhaps something like the infographic style or isometric projections which i like so much?

From an entry in my blog last year: isometric animations which i adore.

last month, i went to take colour samples of the river, and on the bus ride there, i met a cycling geographer, who also pointed out to me that the colour of the river depended on the time of the day. which was very true. the sun started off bright and blazing hot, which made for unusually bright and vibrant colours. however thanks to our erratic tropical weather, by the time i'd walked from the marina bay to boat quay, it suddenly began raining, so i also got the darker, duller grey shades of overcast days - which was particularly apparent at the shallows near the steps, where we also discovered little fish doing peculiar little horizontal swims across flat steps (to eat stair algae?), and nervous kingfishers pacing along the stone path (to eat stair fish?).

its difficult to say what colour river water really ought to be. i've been told the singapore river used to be the colour of Coca Cola, before the cleanup of the 1980s. right now, it seems as if the Singapore River is usually in camouflage army green colours, with mottled brown, grey, and white spots, to blend in with the skyscrapers and ornamental riverside foliage. the sneaksy thing, trying to slip right past us without us noticing...