Is there something interesting or unusual that you know or care about very deeply? Share that information on a map! Map Room is pleased to play a small role in this city-wide project.

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.