Saturday was our last Family Fun before the start of the summer programme for the holidays, and we asked Family Fun participants to map their fantasy worlds, using historic maps from the Special Collections and the current Wanderlust exhibition as inspiration. Since we were using archival maps as reference, we encouraged a mixture of technical mapping tools (such as symbols, key and scale) and also a bit of artistic licence. After all, some of the historic maps feature deep sea monsters as well as known geographical features! For those who didn’t fancy making a full map, or who imagined their worlds differently, we also had some alternative “little world” and booklet formats. Here are our samples to give you an idea of what we were making. Lynsey made a tropical version of Aberdeen complete with palm tree at the harbour (that’s one of my fantasies too!), and I made up an island to explore:
The children got really into the task, with some even making 3D maps with stand-up features. One of the participants stayed for nearly the whole afternoon, making her world in all three formats.
And here is an example of the kind of map images from the collection we had on display. This one of Iceland has all sorts of terrifying sea creatures inhabiting the oceans around Iceland!
Our next Family Fun will be on Wednesday 10th July, from 1-4pm. Hope to see you there!
Posted by: Sarah
UoA Collections 