Map Art

Mapart is a physical structure, made to be viewed on a map. Mapart may be made flat or staircased to provide a richer color palette.

Procedure
Although methods may differ in some cases, generally, the procedure to create a mapart is as follows:


 * 1) Select a location.  Because the area a given map will cover is predermined by the seed, the locations where mapart may be built are limited. Flat locations are prefered, such as deserts or oceans, however, in extreme cases, a platform may be built in the sky to provide a flat surface.
 * 2) Mark the corners.  Because mapart needs to be precise, it is usually helpful to mark the edges of the map in the world. This helps to prevent slight errors in schematic placement
 * 3) Generate the schematic.  Historically, mapart has been built without the use of schematics, but as early as 2015, map artists were using tools such as MCEdit to generate schematics. Recently, more specialized tools have become avaliable, such as RedstoneHelper's mapart tool, and more recently, Rebane2001's MapartCraft website.
 * 4) Gather Materials  If using a schematic, a list of the required materials should be included. Mapart covers quite a large area at 128 x 128 blocks, which equates to an area of over 16,000 blocks.
 * 5) Build  Building the mapart is probably the most time consuming step. Map Artists are constantly fighting a battle against 2b2t's Anticheat, deveolping numerous workarounds to speed up this part of the process, the latest of which is the use of Baritone to automatically build portions of the map.

History
Map artists and their maps have a long history on 2b2t. A major player in the documentation of this history is the Map Artists of 2b2t and their discord server, which is run in collaboration with 2b2t Signed Books and Collectibles Network. The first maps documented here were archived around 2016, however they are speculated to be much older. The first maps were most likely flat, 1 x1 maps with few colors and easy to obtain materials, such as carpet. Carpet became the de-facto standard material for easy or beginner level maps, as Duplication Glitches that work exclusively on carpets, rails, and other similar items have remained unpatched since their discovery. These duplication glitches allowed for the average player to create mapart, and thus, allowed for an explosion in archived mapart.

Conflict
With this explosion in popularity came attention. Griefers discovered a way to reset all maps, destroying any map items that had already been created. This was possible because there can only be a set ammount of maps in existance for a given world file. By creating thousands of new maps, the griefers were able to roll-over the map count, and reset all map items. This exploit is patched in 1.13, but since 2b2t is slated to remain on 1.12 for the near future, the resets continue to be a problem.

Public Reception
The wider 2b2t community is somewhat divided on the issue of mapart. With the advent of Baritone, many players argue that mapart no longer requires any effort, and thus, shouldn't be considered art. The mapartists argue that the art comes from the design process, not necesarily the actual building of the structure. Overall, most individual players are neutral on this issue, with a few outliers on each side.

Notable Works
Several specific maps are noteworthy because of their innovative nature, size, or the circumstances surrounding their creation. Pictures of these maps can be found in the Map Artists of 2b2t discord server.

Etika Memorial Map
After the popular streamer and short-time 2b2t player Etika comitted suicide, a coalition of ten players led by Brochacho created a 4 x 4 flat mapart depicting Etika's portrait and a short message.

Trivia
Relating to the Etika Invasion, a map was created by Breithan which resembled a wanted poster with Etika's face reading, "Wanted Dead or Alive." After Etika went missing, the map was changed to read simply, "Wanted Alive".

NONAGON's Alphabet Maps
Avid mapper and 2b2t player Nonagon creating a series of maps depicting the alphabet in block font, A-z, one letter to a map. He later created maps for the numbers 1-9 as well. This is the largest known map series by a large margin.

Trivia

 * The letters "S" "M" "I" and "B" were griefed in early 2021. These maps were rebuilt by Breithan. An interesting parallel can be drawn between these letters and The Spawnmasons, however it is unknown who griefed these maps.
 * If all of these maps were built in a square, they would cover a 9 x 9 map area, or about 1.33 million square blocks.