i spy cartography.

this is simply the coolest thing ever.

i love maps and i love the i spy personals in seven days - where folks can write in about missed opportunities, unrequited love, and crushes in general and it is often specific to location - ie. "the smile that you flashed me with my breakfast sandwich at hunger mtn coop more than made up for forgetting the tomato. i would love to see you again in something other than your chef whites"

and marty schnure, a geography major from middlebury college, combined the two into the most clever and eye catching map i have ever seen. she describes this creation as “a spatial representation of something not often thought of in spatial terms, or as mappable data: human interactions.”

marty's i spy map is a finalist in the national bizarre map challenge. click here to view the maps and vote for your favorite. just make sure to do it by april 26, at 3pm vt standard time.

if the image alone hasn't captured your attention just listen to her reasoning behind it...“(i chose this i spy map) because it is both unique to vermont and universal; while the map is ostensibly very regional, it transcends its regionalism by representing universally recognizable human needs and wants: connection, intimacy, infatuation, making eye contact with the cutie in the produce section, etc.”

yet another brilliant vermonter among us.