Tag Archives: you are here

New York and Vancouver on Screen

Iñaki Aliste Lizarralde draws floor plans from famous TV apartments, creating real-world maps of fictional settings. His drawing of the “Friends” apartment is part of the You Are Here: NYC collection, and many of his other maps represent New York as well. For example, he has done drawings of the apartments of  Carrie Bradshaw, Holly Golightly, Will & Grace and Lucy & Ricky, all set in New York but never truly existing within the city. These sets were mostly created in Los Angeles (with exception of the apartments of Bradshaw and Golightly, which were created on stage in New York), but are nevertheless an integral part of the populace’s perception of the city of New York.

This emphasis on the New York setting leads me to think of how Vancouver does not have a single map like this, despite being a filmmaking hub. Instead maps are made of the other places in the world that Vancouver represents on screen – like the video, “Vancouver Never Plays Itself.” This video visually maps many of the places Vancouver has pretended to be and is an interesting contrast to Lizarralde’s New York floor plans.

A Closer Look at Jelly NYC

I found it interesting to take a closer look at Liz Hickok’s project “Fugitive Geography: Jelly NYC,” which was featured in Harmon’s You Are Here: NYC. On her website, she describes her process and intent, and includes photographs of the installation. The photographs give the project a different sense of scale compared to the human body, and begin to represent how you would see and interact with a map made out of Jell-O.

“Working with Jell-O and other gelatinous materials enabled me to play the role of architect and reimagine New York City. The material took unexpected turns as it bent, glistened and melted, revealing the hidden fragility of the familiar city grid. The buildings in Jelly NYC assume a human quality as they lean on one another for support.”
(Liz Hickok)

From “You Are Here, Mapping the Psychogeography of New York City” Exhibition at Pratt Manhattan Gallery, NY