# Community Participation > Mapping Challenge Suggestions >  Exquisite corpse mapping

## Azélor

The actual word I came up for this was *chain mapping*, as in ''travail à la chaîne'' in French or assembly line in English.
The principle is different than the community projects like Guild World, Guild City and Guild Dungeon.
Instead of having several people mapping each a different plot, you have several people working on the same map.
This means they have to work with the same software.

Ideal, each team would be small with only 2 or 3 people. 
One person would start the map and pass it to the other person after a certain number of days.
The second person does and same and cycle continues until the map is finished or the team run out of time. 

I'm aware there might be issues, so it needs to be flexible. 

This might be a good learning opportunity as it allow people to see how others are doing.

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## Falconius

Sounds cool.  Although I have no idea why it's called exquisite corpse, which to me sounds like an anatomy dissection study.  Not that that is important, I was more wondering how this project could be made feasible?  The proposal sounds easy enough, but I just don't see it as being quite so easy.

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## DrWho42

i kind of love this idea. i'm curious if maybe you have any examples of this in action?

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## Azélor

> Sounds cool.  Although I have no idea why it's called exquisite corpse, which to me sounds like an anatomy dissection study.  Not that that is important, I was more wondering how this project could be made feasible?  The proposal sounds easy enough, but I just don't see it as being quite so easy.


These were the first words written : "_Le cadavre exquis boira le vin nouveau._" "The exquisite corpse shall drink the new wine."
I'm not sure. I think people would regroup depending on the software they use and the type of map they want to do.
We would need some rules like it's not possible to delete something that has already been done but you can thinker it. 

Maybe we could find a collaborative drawing software and use that instead. Like this : https://aggie.io/ek2nc37ijl





> i kind of love this idea. i'm curious if maybe you have any examples of this in action?


I'm not sure it has been done in cartography. It's been done in writing and drawing but not maps in particular. 
Unless this count as a map : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place_(Reddit) 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnRCZK3KjUY

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## Tiana

> This means they have to work with the same software.


Nah. I use 3+ softwares for one project, as long as the next stage works on a flattened raster image then it's good to go. I imagine it would be sorted out like "you do the border, and you do a compass and legend, and you do a world map flat base with a texture and water, and I'll draw the mountains and forests, and he'll draw the small landmarks, and she'll finish it with the text and placing on the border pieces and compass and legend pieces which were given as transparent pngs."

Or you do it like the legendary game I used to play as a child, which involved co-creating an animal by accordion-folding paper, marking where to 'continue' the shape out on the blank, and each person does a vertical stripe. On your turn you fill in your stripe and make a base that shows where the river/lake would enter the next stage of the map, but, they're blind to what is going on, only that the river enters here, the sea starts here, and it's up to them to put whatever they want in their segment apart from obeying where the starting lines enter. Then at the end it's assembled into one magnificent strip.

This would not be a good 'mapping challenge' in the monthly themes, but it would be a fun forum game.

To make a decent map out of it, we'd have to agree to use the same color of ink, and ideally the strips would be backed with a seamless texture that just happens to be exactly the width of one strip. That way it could be assembled in the end with the least amount of seam.

My idea for this would be that everyone who contributes adds the location in the world that they're from, or something that represents it, in their continuation of the map, as well as their favourite map features. Potentially it could carry on forever, becoming a huge banner-length map that represents slices of the works of dozens of members of the Guild.

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## Wingshaw

> These were the first words written : "_Le cadavre exquis boira le vin nouveau._" "The exquisite corpse shall drink the new wine."


When I first saw this thread, I thought it had something to do with the mafia. Exquisite corpses (or eminent cadavers) was the name applied to officials killed in Sicily by the mafia about 30 years ago...

Wingshaw

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## Falconius

> Or you do it like the legendary game I used to play as a child, which involved co-creating an animal by accordion-folding paper, marking where to 'continue' the shape out on the blank, and each person does a vertical stripe. On your turn you fill in your stripe and make a base that shows where the river/lake would enter the next stage of the map, but, they're blind to what is going on, only that the river enters here, the sea starts here, and it's up to them to put whatever they want in their segment apart from obeying where the starting lines enter. Then at the end it's assembled into one magnificent strip.
> 
> This would not be a good 'mapping challenge' in the monthly themes, but it would be a fun forum game.
> 
> To make a decent map out of it, we'd have to agree to use the same color of ink, and ideally the strips would be backed with a seamless texture that just happens to be exactly the width of one strip. That way it could be assembled in the end with the least amount of seam.


That's also a pretty interesting idea.

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## Azélor

> Nah. I use 3+ softwares for one project, as long as the next stage works on a flattened raster image then it's good to go. I imagine it would be sorted out like "you do the border, and you do a compass and legend, and you do a world map flat base with a texture and water, and I'll draw the mountains and forests, and he'll draw the small landmarks, and she'll finish it with the text and placing on the border pieces and compass and legend pieces which were given as transparent pngs."
> 
> Or you do it like the legendary game I used to play as a child, which involved co-creating an animal by accordion-folding paper, marking where to 'continue' the shape out on the blank, and each person does a vertical stripe. On your turn you fill in your stripe and make a base that shows where the river/lake would enter the next stage of the map, but, they're blind to what is going on, only that the river enters here, the sea starts here, and it's up to them to put whatever they want in their segment apart from obeying where the starting lines enter. Then at the end it's assembled into one magnificent strip.
> 
> This would not be a good 'mapping challenge' in the monthly themes, but it would be a fun forum game.
> 
> To make a decent map out of it, we'd have to agree to use the same color of ink, and ideally the strips would be backed with a seamless texture that just happens to be exactly the width of one strip. That way it could be assembled in the end with the least amount of seam.
> 
> My idea for this would be that everyone who contributes adds the location in the world that they're from, or something that represents it, in their continuation of the map, as well as their favourite map features. Potentially it could carry on forever, becoming a huge banner-length map that represents slices of the works of dozens of members of the Guild.


That is pretty similar to to Guild Wolrd.

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## Tiana

> That is pretty similar to to Guild Wolrd.


Having looked at Guild World, I would say it's similar but not the same. This would be vertical slices passed, done with the intention to connect pieces together rather than individual little country/province designs which all stand alone. I've done it once with continued comic strip panels where we gave 'a little bit' to work with for the next person's lines as a hint of where to draw the continuation of the background. But... it might work much better in comic book art too, who knows. Just like your suggestion, the attempt would be to get something with a unified texture / style but it would also have limits of where people would be drawing, instead of 'add some things wherever you feel like without drawing over anything'. That could also be fun, or chaotic, who knows, I haven't done anything like that since I was a kid when I used to draw with a friend.

Do whatever you think would coordinate in a pleasing and fun way for participants.

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## Falconius

It's more similar to the guild dungeon than to the Guild world.

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## Azélor

I think I see the difference now. 
Basically, the first person start at the left of the map/banner and the map gets expanded to the right. 
Like that: https://www.cartographersguild.com/s...ad.php?t=32880

I think the size should be small but large enough to let some room for creativity. 
The width would be up to the artist. I don't see any reason to limit it, unless it's not too big. 
I'm thinking something like 2 by 3 inches might be a good place to start.

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