11:11
Here's what I was proposing earlier, btw. Suppose $X$ is a cell complex. Say $c \in H_n(X^{(n)}, X^{(n-1)})$ is a cellular $n$-chain in $X$.
That's a formal linear combination $c = \sum_i c_i e_i^n$ where $e_i^n$ are the $n$-cells in $X$ and $c_i$ are the integral coefficients. If $X$ is a connected cell complex, consider the map $\varphi : \bigsqcup_i D^n_i \times \{0, 1, \cdots, c_i\} \to X$ where $\varphi$ restricts to $D^n_i \times \{0, 1, \cdots, c_i\} \stackrel{\pi}{\to} D^n_i \stackrel{char}{\to} X$ on each of the disjoint pieces ($\pi$ = first projection, $char$ = characteristic map).
So basically let $\varphi$ map a $n$-disk to $e_i^n$ with multiplicity $c_i$, corresponding to what happens in $c$
If $X$ is connected, $X^{(0)}$ is just a point, and the boundary of all these n-disks map to $X^{(n-1})$, so contains that 0-cell in the image.
Realizing $\sqcup_i D_i^n \times \{0, 1, \cdots, c_i\}$ as a disjoint union of disks, this means $\varphi$ induces a map from a wedge of $n$-disks: $\varphi : \bigvee_i (\bigvee_{j = 1}^{c_i} D_{j_i}^n) \to X$
I'm writing the full wedge as a wedge of wedges because I don't want to loose track of the multiplicity information in $c$
Oh, and the wedge point is on the boundary of all these disks
If all this is right, this seems to be an analogous description of singular chains as maps from simplicial complexes: cellular chains are maps from wedge of disks
Ah your objection was what if $c_i$ is negative for some $i$. I think the point is, if $c_i = -1$, $\varphi$ would restrict to $D_i^n \to D_i^n \stackrel{char}{\to} X$ where the first map is the one which reverses the orientation of the disk. So on the boundary $\partial D_i^n$, it's the attaching map with the "inverse word"
For example, for $S^2$ with the equator and two 2-cells attached to it by the identity map, the map corresponding to $e_1 - e_2$ (fundamental class) is $\varphi : D^2_1 \vee D^2_2 \to S^2$ where $\varphi|D^2_1$ is attaching map of $e_1$ and $\varphi|D^2_2$ attaching map of $e_2$ composed with the reflection of the disk
And since you can get a wedge of disks by crushing diameters in a disk, you can realize any cellular $n$-chain as a map from a single disk $D^n \to X$. You'd need to keep track of the diameters to crush to recover the formal linear combo back from it though