THE BLACK ELEVATION MAP

An uplifting domestic travel utility for Black & Abroad that visualizes Black cultural data as elevation. The greater the density of data, the higher the elevation.

The platform, at BlackElevationMap.com, contains three connected layers:

DATA VISUALIZATION

A visualization of +330,000,000 points of data, which, through exploration reveals insights about relative population distribution and where Black-owned businesses and cultural institutions are most likely to be present, absent, and in what abundance.

TRAVEL UTILITY

Functionality includes the ability to geolocate, create “favorites” lists, “Add to map”, search, a freestyle explore mode, +30,000 discoverable points of interest, a Black-travel social feed, and integrates with other mapping platforms to facilitate routing and directions.

CURATED CONTENT

Users can explore the map through 12 curated city guides and 10 national guides, which contain dozens of original content models, such as Black-owned wineries (“Melanin Vines”) and restaurants that fuelled civil rights (“Civil Bites”).

VISUALIZING THE HEIGHTS

The project is a crafted patchwork of interwoven data and technologies:

NATURAL ELEVATION

A straight port of a global Digital Elevation Model (DEM) called NASADEM.

TOTAL & BLACK POPULATIONS

Derived from a custom choropleth monochromatic visualization that uses census tract polygonal data for geographical units. Densities computed and visualized using quantile (equal count) categorization.

BLACK-OWNED BUSINESSES

Elevation generated using an ad hoc point density visualization.

HMDB

Data tagged “African-American” pulled from the Historical Marker Database. Visualization generated as above.

POINTS OF INTEREST

CMS content and records from HMDB, combined with API data from Yelp! and Google, filtered for relevance to travel. Google Places ID used for standardization across sources. Rules for clustering and visibility by zoom level.

3D OVERLAY

Mapbox GL web library with a custom WebGL renderer, wrapped in a custom React web app.

SEARCH

Results from public Mapbox service integrated to prioritize and differentiate project-specific records.

NEW WAYS OF SEEING

From its Black-culture-centering international tours, to its representation-pushing online activity, Black & Abroad is known for using creativity and technology to challenge the way the world sees travel. The Black Elevation Map is a choice to see America through a lens of joy and community.

CREATIVITY ON A CONTINUUM

This project sits on a historical continuum of Black-led design and “counter-mapping” – a map-making practice interested in establishing and charting Black geographies at times when barriers to owning your space (disappropriation) could be as elusive as barriers to owning your body (slavery, lynching and incarceration).

ICONS & TYPE

The project’s impactful headline font is “Martin”, and is based on Civil Rights protest posters. The body copy is “Du Bois.” Both were created by American designer Tré Seals, also created the project’s original “points of interest” icon set, based on his survey of West African symbology.