Surveys as art.

Nice . . .

Here's a thought . . .

the next time a surveyor performs a survey, he/she should practically give the survey away for nearly nothing.

BUT, incorporate the survey into a relatively elaborate "work of art", and charge the client much more for the artistic portion of the whole product.

I wonder if then, there would be much, much stronger protection of the total final product and more stringent laws governing the re-copying of the "art".

Not to be argumentative...

...but I believe this is the cutest grand baby in th world.

Don

Not to be argumentative...

That young man is going to make some woman VERY happy one day.

Not to be argumentative...

What, he has millions of dollars and likes to spend them?

> Mrs. File picked up a print of this from one of her trips out east and had it matted for me for a gift. I put it up today.

So, does this mean that you'll be adding images of road-kill deer with an ornate North arrow pointing at the same to all DOT maps from now on? Let us know how this works out. :>

You know, though, for DOT mapping, shouldn't there be a drawing of an ornate coffee cup somewhere on the map? After the staff conference, I assume that the "North arrow" will point to all of the various Norths that the North Arrow Committee discussed and there will be a special note certifying compliance with the standards of the current edition of the DOT North Arrow Handbook.

The lower right part of the second pic almost has my avatar in
it if you look right. The deer antlers are like hands ready to grab it.
Too weird!
Mr File.. You must be doing something not right:-P 😛

That reminds me

That reminds me of a photo I saw today in a small town rural weekly newspaper. Every year in January there is a gigantic coyote hunting competition held with people coming from all over the US to participate. The photo showed dead coyote upon dead coyote stacked on a long table. There probably aren't two subscribers to that newspaper who have any problem with the photo. But..............someone..........somewhere.............is bound to find it and pitch a hissy.

What a great gal that Mrs. File must be. A very thoughtful gift for a surveyor.

It’s a really nice looking map and the comments above show that art is in the eye of the beholder. Each person has a slightly different perception and paints the canvas with their mind’s eye.

I found a simplistic map of the Wachovia tract and it is interesting to compare with the original,especially the water courses, when the modern one is rotated to match-

Wachovia tracts now:

Wachovia tract in 1754:

Excellent work, Mr. Berry

😉

> What a great gal that Mrs. File must be. A very thoughtful gift for a surveyor.

For DOT use, though, what is missing is a more decorative "+" sign for all those pesky stations that otherwise take up space that could be better filled with coffee cups and Post-it notes. I'd suggest a Maltese cross, but I think that's already used for something else in PLSSia.

Awww, c'mon now...

really?

Now that is funny! You are a true surveyor!
:'( :'(

Not quite the same butt damn!
B-)

> Not quite the same butt damn!
> B-)

No, rochs01, that is your butt. I mean the exact same posterior as shown on your icon. I just thank my lucky stars that my daughter didn't cruise by while I was revising Rankin’s map. "Uh, Dad, what are you doing?" "Oh, hi honey, you're up late." "It’s 8:30 dad. Just what is THAT??" "Oh, this, well, yes, right. It's the butt of another surveyor from Texas that I'm putting on a dead deer on a very old map that a survey from Montana owns..." "The butt of another surveyor?" "Well, no, not exactly, it's another surveyors’ avatar... not the surveyor’s own butt. At least I don't think it is. It's purported to be a hot air balloon that looks like a butt..." “Like a surveyor’s butt, dad? The dead deer on the old map will get better with a surveyor's butt?” “No, of course not. And it is not a surveyor’s butt, per se. You see, it’s, it's.... hey, go clean your room” “Argh. OK. Surveyors are soooo weird…“

>"Like a surveyor’s butt, dad? The dead deer on the old map will get better with a surveyor's butt?”

Honey, it's ART! The map, of course, is all junk, but you didn't look at the map, did you? Why else do you think I spend hours drawing North arrows for those lot surveys I do at night from Google Earth?

Any map and its contents are absolutely relevant when there is a desired purpose upon which somone will require a map and need to rely upon it, whether it be for a technical, financial, or artistic purpose. For example, even a vastly inaccurate map could have relevant purpose as wall art.

If anyone really believes that the only relevant purpose for a map is a purely technical one then I suggest this person may be a tad bit narrow in their understanding of the contextual framework of the world around them.

> If anyone really believes that the only relevant purpose for a map is a purely technical one then I suggest this person may be a tad bit narrow in their understanding of the contextual framework of the world around them.

Well, considering that the reason why land surveying is organized as a profession is different than why interior decorators may be, I don't think it's a stretch to expect a land surveyor to focus on the reasons for having been hired in the first place.

Client: "So where are the boundaries of my tract and did you find any significant discrepancies or boundary conflicts?"

Decorative Surveyor: "Look at this North arrow. See how I've worked photos of your entire family into the central rosette? The fletching on the arrow itself is the same that Donald Trump has on all his North arrows. Tell you what: after the closing and you have a chance to get the map framed, why don't we get together so I can advise you where to hang it?"

God bless you, Mr. Lines, but you've got a long road ahead of you if you think you're going to have the last word here.
I, myself, am hesitant to say that I agree with you.
I do, but for God's sake, don't tell Kent.:-X

Don

> God bless you, Mr. Lines, but you've got a long road ahead of you if you think you're going to have the last word here.

Well, B. Lines seems to want to argue that the main purpose of survey maps isn't to communicate information about the surveyor's findings. That's such an odd proposition that it almost isn't even worth debating. The graphic design problem of how to effectively communicate information through the medium of the map is fairly straight forward, but it isn't art. The derailment arrives when surveyors confuse making a pretty map with the real task that they ought to have engaged, which was communicating information that was in fact technical in nature.