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What
is it?
"Notes for
a Peoples Atlas" is a multi-city, participatory mapping
and design project that began under the sponsorship of AREA
Chicago in 2005 with a Chicago-based project, and has now traveled
to Zagreb, Croatia and Syracuse, NY.
"Notes"
invites participants to fill in the blank outline of the political
border of their city or region with individual and collective local
knowledge, forgotten histories, ongoing debates, and changing definitions
of urban space. The goal is to generate dialogue and open-ended
imagining about urban space and history, taking seriously the expertise
and ideas of "nonspecialist" community members. When archived,
the information will be in a form that is accessible, well-designed,
and visually rich.
Why
maps?
Because maps are a visual tool for sharing information with others.
They can be produced by many people and combined to tell stories
about complex relationships. While ultimately maps are never finished
and tell only part of an ever-expanding story, we cannot know where
we are going if we don't know where we are from.
What
should I put on my map?
Start with sites that are significant to you as someone who lives,
works and plays in this city: past or current political struggles,
lost histories, cultural spaces, environmental devastation, personal
histories, real estate speculation, social movements of the past,
places of formal/informal education, sites of gang violence, where
to get the best coffee, places where tourists do not go, the periphery
of the city, proposals for alternative uses of public space, distribution
of wealth, etc. Be creative: combine, intersect, contrast, or flip
your themes or topics. Map out personal histories and points of
interest as well as what else they relate to, to whom these points
are important, and why.
Visit
our blog for more information: http://chicagoatlas.areaprojects.com/
Workshops
and Exhibitions
The maps have been used in workshops at Big
Picture High School and the Mess
Hall cultural center in Rogers Park, and have been featured
in exhibitions about environmental racism at Polvo
Gallery in Pilsen, A+D
Gallery of Columbia College, the Hyde
Park Art Center, Gallery
400 at UIC and the Museum
of Contemporary Art.
Additionally,
this concept has been developed in other cities, such as Syracuse
and Zagreb. From Fall 2008-Fall 2010, the maps will tour in an exhibition
entitled "Experimental
Geography" curated by Nato Thompson.
The
Future:
Discussions are underway with the Chicago
Public Library to distribute the maps in display cases in all
the library branches in the city. The maps will eventually be developed
into a touring exhibition that will visit numerous Chicago community
areas and be produced into a book by a third party publisher.
Map
Room will
be serving as a distributor of blank maps and a depository for completed
ones. Need a blank map? Download one here
(PDF) or ask one of our servers the next time you're in the bar.
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