Andy Seifert

Amidst the recent rise in popularity of Mapquest and the overwhelmingly intricate Google Earth, the Field Museum's simply titled "Maps" sets out to show that maps were once hand-written and delightfully flawed. Historical heavy-hitters like Charles Lindberg's New York-to-Paris flight chart and J.R.R. Tolkien's imaginary depiction of Minas Tirith highlight the exhibit, but nearly all the pieces exist within their own subjective realm. A February 1944 Los Angeles Times wartime graphic shows an arrow decorated in stars and stripes advancing on Hong Kong while hordes of bombs obliterate Tokyo, suggesting the Americans will have the Pacific war taken care of by the spring. Leonardo Da Vinci's subtle yet professional map of central Italy blurs the line between precise cartography and expressive art, as do most of the pieces, until the grand finale: six large touch-screen computerized maps of the world. It's bright, vivid and mind-numbingly accurate, but lacks the character of a crumpled and torn-up sheet with coffee stains or the boldness of a one-sided view of territorial boundaries (see John Mitchell's 1755 map of how colonial North America ought to look). When it comes to cartography, a little bit of bias makes the end result far more absorbing.

"Maps: Find Our Place in the World" opens November 2 at the Field Museum, 1400 South Lake Shore, (312)922-9410. (2007-10-30)

Also by Andy Seifert

The Scary Stage
For a holiday whose core values are centered on spooking kids, it’s strange how pumped adults get into it; foremost among them is Jason Chin, the writer/director of "Thriller Theater" at i.O.
(2007-10-23)

Skin Deep
Mr. Skin may specialize in finding breasts in films, but he can appreciate finding irony in bookstores as well. The film-nudity mogul, whose recently released book "Mr. Skin's Skintastic Video Guide" reveals his 500 favorite movies for nudie-viewing pleasure, can’t help but grin when people inside Barbara’s Bookstore start to notice that the children’s book section is bordering the room where his people have set up a video screen
(2007-10-16)

Academic Alliance
There are at least a thousand people struggling to pour into the Rockefeller Chapel at the University of Chicago, trying to witness a roundtable discussion on academic freedom, and many are surely there for one person: Noam Chomsky
(2007-10-16)

By a Thread
It would’ve been difficult, even frustrating to find the new but sign-less Threadless retail store in the Lakeview neighborhood if there hadn’t been a few dozen scruffy-looking college-aged kids patiently sitting outside, calmly waiting for the uber-popular Web site’s first store to open its doors
(2007-09-18)

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