The End of the World

The five drawings above are the final five maps I've collected for my My World project, where I ask people to draw the world.

Nuala, Louise, Eleanor, David O and Daniel drew their worlds last year. With their drawings, I had reached a total of 80. That seemed like a good number to bring collecting to a close. I had collected drawings of The World in 80 ways.

Also, in my poster design below, 80 allows for a blank space, recognising that this kind of endeavour could run and run on to infinity. (Click on it to see it bigger)

Thank you to all those who drew pictures, responding to my perplexing request with creativity, practicality and flair.

All 80 images - the world in 80 ways - are on flickr here.

Roisin Murphy draws the world!

I went out last night to the launch of Simon Henwood's new book. Simon Henwood - previously unknown to me - is the boyfriend of popdiva Roisin Murphy, and Roisin was DJing at the launch. So I popped along to hear her play some tunes.

In between spying the ridiculous Shoreditch types wearing outré clothing, I dug out my pen and pad and asked Dennis to draw the world and Sandro to draw Italy (always remembering my EuroGlobe & MyWorld projects, that's me).

But then a suggestion flashed my way from Henry & Dennis - go ask Roisin Murphy to draw the world. Could I? Would I? Should I?

It's a no-brainer. Of course I should. I drew my courage, held my breath and off I went. Once she finished swapping numbers with someone else, I tapped her shoulder.

Adrian - Hi, I wonder if you could do me a favour - I have a project where I ask people to draw the world. Would you do it for me?
Roisin - Yeah, sure (like it's the most normal thing in the world)

And so she did. So here's the world, as drawn by Roisin Murphy. It's surprisingly stark - no scaffolding, jaunty hats, no ostentatious glovery. But utterly delightful.

Draw the world, see the world

I asked Itinerant Londoner Geoff to draw the world (for my MyWorld project) just before he left London to see the world.

And while the pen and pad was out, Geoff decided to be the UK-candidate for my EuroRevision Project. So here's Geoff's version of the UK.

Tatiana's map of Russia

I met Tatiana, from Moscow, at a party last week. Tatiana was ace, she has recently arrived in London. We talked about: gays, WWW, Leningrad, countesses, communists, religion, the Russian alphabet, VIA Gra, hair, the Russian for "cat", Dima Bilan, how to say "how are you" in Russian and many other exciting topics.

I asked Tatiana to draw a map of Russia. Here it is.

Also new is another map of the world. Markus, from somewhere near Stuttgart drew this, as he had seen Tatiana drawing her map. I have already 'got' Germany, so I asked him to draw the world.

Weekend + world

When you work everyday in an office, your world tends to revolve around the weekend.

This weekend I'm off to see the Scissor Sisters play a big charity concert in Trafalgar Square, which should be all manner of fun. My good friend Fiona is accompanying me.

Fiona recently drew a picture of the world for me. Thanks to her for that - here it is:

Have a good weekend, whatever you do!

My World: how people see and draw the world

With just a pad and pen, I ask people to 'draw the world'... 'draw their world'... 'the world as they see it'... I'm purposefully vague. It's not a test od memory or skill, but an attempt to express imaginative geographies and more.

The images are the fascinating, funny, fearless results.

· Go to Flickr to see the My World project, where I ask people to 'draw the world'

Site

For the past year or so, I have asked friends and strangers to draw the world. I have, so far, collected 46 images.

In addition to this, I am starting an experimental project in which I ask European people to draw maps of their countries, compiling these together to make one large map of the world. I do not know if this will be successful, but the process of compiling should be interesting. This image would re-draw Europe, with each country given a similar space rather than their geographic, measured areas.