selectparks - Swearingen's Science of Place

It's odd to walk through a park and find myself saying, "This reminds me of lvl0_42.bsp".

The work of Scott Swearingen however traverses my waking life often, and not through a formal similarity to where I am, but something less tangible; a common sense of place.

Scott offers a rare contribution to the discipline of mapping, he is concerned with the science and design of making places, and as such his work breaches the ever thinning margins between game and life.

Every one of Scott's alluring studies hint at a greater universal logic, one that echo's outward from his map and into a self-sustaining world we cannot reach beyond. Through the introduction of situations and little scenarios we get to know just enough about the world to feel like we're part of it, a denizen. In this way Scott exploits a resource unique to the medium of the game, a context for creating that uncanny sense of feeling like a local.

Scott now has a site dedicated to his work, and in the coming weeks we'll be adding some of his new work to the Art Mods section. Get the goodness here.