Time lapse showing 20 years of changes to an 8 by 16 panel portion of the map. Sharp eyes will note that there are not actually 20 changes in this animation. This is because for some of those years, no cards were drawn that called for changes on these particular panels.

The Creative Process

The Card Deck

The entire process is driven by instructions on a card drawn from a special deck created by the artist. Each cycle begins only when the artist’s tasks from the previous card are complete. This could take anywhere from a few minutes to a few days.

The cards were first introduced as a simple random number generator. When Jerry was first creating the map it was simple enough to work sheet to sheet, but as the map grew to hundreds of individual panels it became very tedious to make his way through the set.

“I wanted to move through the stack faster, and the easiest random number system I could come up with was a deck of cards. I’d draw a card and move down that many panels in the stack.” 

As Jerry began working on ways of systematizing the process of working on the map he began to incorporate instructions on the cards. The contemporary deck of cards has been adapted from playing cards and the total number varies as cards have been added, revised, and removed. Currently there are approximately 100 cards.

“Sometimes I have feelings about the deck of cards. There’s a message in those cards. There’s no big man with a beard who has ordered the cards, but I’m very interested in seeing what comes out of it. There’s a reality in there waiting to get out. It’s the map’s future predictor and as it is always changing its alive…My hand puts the paint on the paper, I’ll step back and look at the sheets as though I wasn’t the perpetrator but merely the observer.”

Interpreting the Cards

The instructions on each card have these three elements:

Card instructions for the Artist are in these five general categories:

• • Next higher dimension (void, red, black, ziggurat)

  • Spatter paint four contiguous panels (current panel plus the 3 closest to the center of that panel)

  • Create a new seed panel

  • Mix a new paint color

  • Screen print the 9 contiguous panels (current panel plus 8 surrounding panels)

• • Update and copy the master (map element) on the top of the stack of masters

  • Copy the current panel on label paper so portions can be used in collage

• • Use a patchwork of re-used printed paperboard (e.g cereal boxes)

  • Use a photo from the artist's files

  • Use a lumen print (objects scanned and printed)

• • Add or subtract from the number on a specified number cards (e.g. "add 3 to the number on the last 2 cards")

  • Eliminate a card from or add a card to the deck (eliminated cards are "retired" forever, but the instructions are kept on a list for possible re-use on a future card)

  • Copy and retire the last 9 cards (physical cards are retired but the copies stay in the deck)

  • Shuffle the deck

• • Do a blog entry

  • Do a journal entry (also print and make collage material of the entry)

  • Do a Reddit post

  • Calculate the sales value of the entire set of panels (based latest eBay sale)

Card instructions for the Artist’s Helper are related to:

• • The card indicates the number of panels to be scanned and added to the digital library.

• • The card asks the helper to sort retired panels and archive them.

• • The helper makes copies of the number of current panels indicated on the card, and the original panels are retired and archived.

• • The card asks the helper to update the inventory of the archives.

A TYPICAL DAY’S WORK

Jerry draws a card and works through the tasks it defines. This video gives some insight into what a typical day’s work looks like.

The Principles

These are the instructions and rules which guide the Artist in the creation of the map:

• Each card has a large black or red number in an upper corner. A "task" is defined as the completion of the number of work units as specified by the number on the card that is drawn. A work unit is the number of one inch squares to be covered. The number drawn and the effort required can be highly variable, so a day's work could consist of one card’s work units, or just a portion of one. Work on an incomplete work unit continues at the next work session.

• When a card is drawn you must follow the specific instructions on the card, but those instructions may be changed for the next time that card is drawn.

• Work direction is determined by color of the drawn card - black is clockwise, red is counter-clockwise.

• Every page has a "center" point from which the work emanates. The "center" of the new page is the same as the parent’s.

• New panels are generated by drawing a "new panel" card, or a new panel is required to complete a section of art.

• When a new page is added, the new page will use the "color of the day".

• The location of the new page is determined by placing a compass point in the "center" of the parent page and determining the closest edge of the map (this keeps the map roughly circular and growing generally equally in all directions).

• Master map shows the locations of the panels as defined by coordinates.

• Colors are more abstract and do not necessarily represent the physical world. Colors may be applied with either paint or markers, or by using collage. The 42 colors are continually remixed to ensure a spectrum of paints.

• New artwork is never applied on top of existing original artwork, it is only added to a new version of the page.

The Layers

The Map is expressed, over time, in successive layers, each one replacing its predecessor. The process of developing and revising a panel results in several iterations of that panel.

The Base Layer is divided into four phases:

A. The blank page is an 8 by 10 inch patchwork of paperboard or is a sheet of heavy paper on which is a photo or a lumen print.

B. The blank is gradually covered in successive bands of painted color.

C. The paint is replaced by 1" squares of paper collage.

D. The collage is replaced by 1" city squares in:

1. Green with 400 new inhabitants

2. Red with 800 new inhabitants

3. Grey with 1200 new inhabitants

4. Black with 2400 new inhabitants

The next layer is The Void. Its initial phase is composed of irregular pieces of plain, white collage. That is followed by a layer of 2" squares of black-and-white collage. On that layer 1" squares of grey city form followed by 1" squares of black city.

The third layer is called The Red Dimension and is expressed by irregular flame-shaped solid red collage.

Black Ness, composed of 2" squares of black collage, supercedes The Red Dimension.

Then follows The Ziggurat Phase in which successively smaller squares of collage, starting with 2 by 2, are stacked on top of each other. That layer, and the ones that follow, have yet to manifest themselves on The Map.

The Flood, represented by irregular pieces of blue collage, and Re-Birth, composed of hand-torn pieces of kraft paper, are the final stages in the Map cycle.

Then the whole process starts over with new Paint Bands.

The Evolution of the Process

The map has been constantly evolving with Jerry over the years from the earliest iterations to its present state. This evolution has been driven by three primary factors. First, the media used in the production of the map panels has changed over time. Second, as the map grew larger mechanisms such as the use of the deck of instruction cards automated the map and changed Jerry's role as the author. Finally, the introduction of the system of layers.