It would make an interesting map generation algorithm that could feed the card data and specified map tiles into an image gen AI system that would have to take the map tiles and try to follow the rules.
Despite the negative reactions, I think this demonstrates how "make up some rules and follow them" is no longer intrinsically valuable. Likewise with coffee table books with a strong visual theme like, I dunno, cats wearing different hats. I can do that myself now.
For the individual, though, you do you. You can't automate self-expression.
I know Jerry Map (I hope that someday will be a exposition in Spain) because I love it, I love the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outsider_art. The people who maybe mad and they built a world with own rules.
I used to do things like this when I was a kid (less extreme, never more than a single sheet of paper), where I would create some natural features: a lake shore or river, maybe a freeway or two or a railroad and then start platting out a subdivision in the open spaces. It was a delightfully meditative practice and maybe I should start doing it again.
In high school I remember entertaining myself in class by using grid paper to draw little tile based maps. It’s like playing Minecraft by hand. I imagine the concept is lost to a lot of Gen Z or Gen Alpha by now. Too much imagination required.
Reminds me of _Journeys Into the Outside_ by Jarvis Cocker.
And that reminds me of the time when I saw him in passing in a corridor at King's Cross Thameslink and my hand was halfway up into a wave before I realised that he wouldn't know who am.
My favorite part about this/what blows my mind is that his system has him editing singular tiles at any given time. He seemingly only gets to see what it actually looks like at intervals like 15 years apart. There are probably entire epochs of his system that he'll never actually see laid out because they've since been overridden.
The card deck procedure is the most interesting part to me. It makes the map feel less like a drawing and more like a system Jerry is observing over decades. Maybe i need to follow his rules for a map of my own.
In my grade school years, I made many maps of my imaginary world. By high school, I was putting them into my computer, one 16x16 grid at a time. Had to make sure the edges matched up. Then I wrote code to print them on the Epson MX-80 dot matrix. The poster-board I tiled them on was still in the basement, though many of the squares were falling off.
It was easier after I coded a moving 64x64 buffer.
Oh that is a blast from the past - I had an Epson MX-80 printer as a kid connected to my first PC. Many fond memories of trying to make muti-page prints from it... And the dot-matrix sound is still embedded deep in my brain.
There was another project I saw years ago that this reminds me of. It was a guy who had been running a simulated city/community for like 20 years. The whole thing was done on pen and paper and used complex rule system he had devised. Similar pre-internet outsider art vibe.
Once upon a time, people worked on making imaginary maps https://www2.cs.arizona.edu/~kobourov/PROJECTS/maps.html to visualize datasets like TV and music recommendations. It was fun. In a 2026 context, one might use AI to post process the maps and make them even better.
First found out about Jerry’s Map over 10 years ago thanks to this video on Vimeo and it really stuck with me. Glad to see the project continue. Also I miss finding these smaller documentaries on the site, so many neat subjects covered before Youtube became the home of all things video.
The revision process makes it look like a satellite image, painstakingly updated by a single satellite, which can only cover so much per pass.
I have this recurring dream of a city - it's a mix of various places I've been to and it's surprisingly consistent. It bears the closest resemblance to Riga, Latvia - only thing is I've never been there. Funny how that works.
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[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 77.3 ms ] threadFor the individual, though, you do you. You can't automate self-expression.
https://youtu.be/Is8N7B9b0GQ
Probably someone else must've also watched this in the past few hours or days.
I remember the book of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Darger or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_Fortress or Cataclysm DDA .
And weird games as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomic .
And that reminds me of the time when I saw him in passing in a corridor at King's Cross Thameslink and my hand was halfway up into a wave before I realised that he wouldn't know who am.
I like this. I like that his system pushes the creative process forward without relinquishing the actual creative part of it (making the map tile).
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47657268
In my grade school years, I made many maps of my imaginary world. By high school, I was putting them into my computer, one 16x16 grid at a time. Had to make sure the edges matched up. Then I wrote code to print them on the Epson MX-80 dot matrix. The poster-board I tiled them on was still in the basement, though many of the squares were falling off.
It was easier after I coded a moving 64x64 buffer.
https://vimeo.com/13596774
I have this recurring dream of a city - it's a mix of various places I've been to and it's surprisingly consistent. It bears the closest resemblance to Riga, Latvia - only thing is I've never been there. Funny how that works.
"an elaborate set of rules and randomly generated instructions"
... so which one is it?