The 'emblematic image map' method is a navigating tool, it summarises series of photographs or other kind of pictorial material and tries to create a total atmosphere in one view by fusing different picture elements into one. There is a strong interpretative element in the way pictures are combined and fused. This can only be done by making subjective choices, but there are some guiding principles: the image map/collage always shows that it is made up of different elements, there is no attempt to create a unified new 'reality', the melting, transparent layering and other digital collage techniques can be deducted by the viewer.

Summarizing pictorial information and emphasising choosen meanings, are the main qualities of this technique. Adding a short title and a subscription, makes these 'image maps' fit in the tradition of the classic European emblem art with its three parts: Inscriptio (title), pictura (picture) and subscriptio (subtitle). Ideally there should also be a tension between these three elements, not just a straight forward descriptive way of giving meaning. This 'image map' method is a linking tool from image to images, or from image to text.

Some of the image maps below are 'clickable', so clicking a certain area of the picture will lead to the original single picture used, clicking that picture will bring you back tot the picture map again.
 
 

>22 April 2000 Nieuwmarkt Amsterdam; Station To Station; The 14 stages of the suffering of Jezus Christ enacted with public; participation. A project of Maartje Nevejan.	January 2000 >Dutch Traces; pictures for a book announcement made for Maaike Boots/Flexbase.	January 2000 Dutch Traces; pictures for a book announcement made for Maaike Boots/Flexbase>

Two earlier examples from 1995, first attempts to visualize libraries and archives


January 1999 visit to Japanese anarchist archive: CIRA Nippon, Fujinomiya-Shi


January 1999 visit to Ohara Institute for Social Research, Hosei University, Aihara Machida-Shi, Tokyo, Japan