Los Angeles is one of the most interesting mental mapping laboratories studied by Sorin Matei.

The Californian metropolis is spread across an enormous coastal plain, surrounded and partially divided by abrupt mountain ranges and bordered by an extensive beach.

The physical geography of Los Angeles masks, however, an invisible one, that of fear and comfort. In a very surprising way, some of the geographic features of Los Angeles overlap those of fear. Fear is mostly present al lower altitudes, while comfort is present in vicinity of the mountain ranges.

However, the mountains of comfort do not perfectly overlap with those of stone and rock. Also, the most intensely feared area of Los Angeles describes a deep "abyssal", which does not exist in reality.

In the 3-D flyovers and movies to the right you will be able to explore how the two geographies, that of fear and that of comfort, overlap.

Copyright Sorin A Matei, 2003
Last update: December 18, 2003 Contact: mental@matei.org

This geographic map of Los Angeles overlaps with a hidden geography of fear.
You may visualize it by walking your mouse over the map or you can view a movie or fly through the mental map by using the links below.

Choose one of the options below to examine the maps above in three dimensions

Fly-over movie with spoken commentary Take a guided tour through the fear landscape. Sorin Matei will discuss in this Real Media 5 minute movie the fear geography of Los Angeles. To view the movie you need a broadband connection (cable/dsl/ethernet--at least 225 KB/s) and a Real Player.

You be the pilot: Virtual Reality Fly-Over Fly through the fear landscape as if piloting your own helicopter. This is a Virtual Reality (VR) experience, so brace yourself! You need to download a plug in (1.4 MB) and a large source file (3 MB). Instructions are available on the next page.