About Moogle Gaps...

Moogle Gaps is a collection of digital ephemera, like the emptying of a desk drawer: stories and drawing, histories, natural histories, adventures and of course maps. What I'm calling "Moogle Gaps" is a play on the new standard for mapping, Google Maps. Unlike Google Maps, Moogle Gaps will animate the gray and green "gaps" in the landsacpe, turning these spaces into places.

Place is a vague word and to narrow the concept I would define "place" as the connection between physical space and people. Place is created and ever changing, malleable both in physical landscape (think bulldozers) and meaning (think the Lorraine Motel). Unfolding these layers of meaning involves the making and reading of maps, the walking of boundaries, observing the cycles of birds and insects, and the questioning of history and culture. Place is at once unyielding like granite peaks and skyscrapers yet wonderfully temporal, contingent on ethereal things like the smell of hay, humidity, a creole accent or the sound of moving water. Spaces can be pinned to the wall on a map and photographed a million times yet these same spaces are somehow unique to each person, each time - this is place. I hope you enjoy and as always please contact me for questions, thoughts, or to share something about your places.


Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Walking the Keystone Pipeline


My long time friend and once Appalachian trail hiking partner Tim responded to my reflections of the Appalachian trail summing up the highs and lows of our trip with, "In many ways, that walk set a mile-marker in my young mind from which all other destinations have been measured since."  I couldn't agree more. The trip solidified in me a love of walking long walks, following lines, reaching goals mixing adventure, struggle, and a willingness to accept the unknown. While the Appalachian trail is threaded by geology and represents a staggering monument to shared ownership and the conservation of green spaces on the East Coast, it does not really have a unified identity beyond, "if I follow the white blazes painted on trees, rocks, and old fences I will eventually get to Maine/Georgia." I am still fascinated by the idea of route following but have become more interested in following created or contextual routes more than established walking routes. 

 One project that I recently came across is doing this in a real and very long way. Ken Ilgunas is currently walking the  entire route of the proposed Tar Sands - Keystone Pipeline. The journey of some 1,700 miles is well documented on his blog: Pipe Dreams. This proposed Canada to the Gulf oil pipeline was hurtled into the spotlight this past week when President  Obama referenced climate change in his inauguration speech (the term did not come up once in the run up to the election) and then on the following day when Gov. Dave Heineman from Nebraska approved the new route for the project for the much needed job creation and financial gains for the state. Opponents of the project such as James Hansen of NASA calls the project basically "game over" for the climate. Author and activist Bill McKibben of 350.org has also taken a lead in publicizing this "non-topic" that has massive implications. 

 For perspective the size of Athabasca Oil Sands area in Alberta is similar to Great Britain or the State of Florida. Please stay informed and have a look at Ken Ilgunas' great project at www.kenilgunas.com. 
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