New Urban Arts

Creative Cartography:

An Atlas of Arts Workshops

From the Summer 2006 Art Inquiry
 Creative Cartography: An Atlas of Arts Workshops

New Urban Arts

Summer 2006

Providence, Rhode Island

Copyright New Urban Arts, October 2007 2

About this Publication
“Creative Cartography: An Atlas of Arts Workshops” is a program resource guide that
documents a thematic Art Inquiry at New Urban Arts in Summer 2006. The interdisciplinary
summer program brought together nine high school students and seven artists to explore
mapmaking as a creative practice fueled by a human impulse to locate itself. This publication
exists as a map itself, outlining the activities, ideas, dialogues, questions and projects that
drove our art inquiry process. This resource guide reflects a map as it holds many destinations
without one determined pathway prescribed.

Many of the following ideas enclosed in this publication, were originally inspired by the art
book, You Are Here, by Katherine Harmon. This book is an unusual collection of maps
created by artists, ranging from Chris Kenny’s Fetish Map of London (2000) to All Roads
One Road Headed the Same Way by Howard Finster (1978). The discovery of this valued
resource led to many individual conversations with local artists and students regarding maps
as an artistic endeavor. These dialogues developed a series of arts workshops and student
driven arts projects, surrounding “Creative Cartography” as a chosen theme. The workshop
ideas compiled here were used to generate a new understanding, appreciation and approach to
maps.

Similar to our use of Harmon’s book as a key resource in sparking a community driven art
inquiry, we hope you find this resource guide useful as artists, educators and young people in
sparking new ideas for your own creative practice, individually, collaboratively or even in the
classroom. We encourage you to alter, combine, or adapt these activities to your liking to best
meet the needs of your specific environment.

This guide was created by New Urban Arts’ Program Director, Sarah Meyer. Check back to
www.newurbanarts.org for progress on this and other projects’ implementation and please
send your feedback to [email protected].

Acknowledgements
Mary Adewusi, Aneudy Alba, Ricky Cantor, Elizabeth Keith, John Nguon, Jenna Sanchez,
Shaonessy Santana, Kian Shenfield, Daniel Valmas, Peter Hocking, Jean Cozzens, Michael
Wójcicki, Andrew Oesch, Megan Hall, Anna Mulligan, Matt Tracy, Sarah Bernstein, Laura
Cohen, the Providence Plan, Mix Tape for the City, Tyler Denmead and many generous
individuals. Creative Cartography was made possible through support from the Rhode Island
Council for the Humanities, an independent state affiliate of the National Endowment for the
Humanities.

About New Urban Arts

New Urban Arts is a nationally recognized interdisciplinary arts studio for high school
students and emerging artists in the West End neighborhood of Providence, Rhode Island.
Our mission is to create and sustain a vital community that supports young people as artists
and leaders toward a lifelong creative practice. Founded in 1997, New Urban Arts is housed
in a 2,500 square foot storefront arts studio. For more information visit
www.newurbanarts.org

Copyright New Urban Arts, October 2007 3

Table of Contents
Introduction: What is an Art Inquiry? 5

I. Mapping Your Neighborhood and Community 8

1. Memory Map
2. Directions Map
3. Route Mapping
4. Audio Maps/Walking Tours
5. Scavenger Hunt
6. Be a Tourist in Your Own Town
7. Mapping through Audio and Found Objects
8. Blind Drawing
9. Map of Awesome: What Providence do you live in?
10. Neighborhood Poem

II. Mapping Your Self and Identity 14

1. Compass Points
2. Success Map
3. Self Map
4. Dream Map
5. Mood Map
6. Map of My day
7. Concept Charts
8. Points of No Return

III. Mapping Imaginary Places and Ideas 18

1. Pyschogeography
2. US Map Treatment
3. Postcard Narratives
4. Conversation Map

IV. Interviews with Students 20

V. Writing an Artist Statement 24
VI. Resources for creative Cartography 26

Copyright New Urban Arts, October 2007 4

Introduction: What is an Art Inquiry?
New Urban Arts is a youth arts organization dedicated to strengthening our community by
empowering public high school students in Providence, Rhode Island to develop their creative
voices and see themselves as agents of change. In the summer of 2006, New Urban Arts
launched the Art Inquiry as a new opportunity to engage young people during the critical
summer months out of school. The Art Inquiry provides an experience distinct from our after
school programming during the academic year, utilizing greater time available in the summer
to offer a more structured, intensive, interdisciplinary program for committed students who
have participated in our Youth Mentorship Program at least one year.

Students, scholars and artists form a collective for fives weeks in the summer months to
collaboratively and creatively investigate a chosen theme during a series of workshops and
events. This theme raises questions around the human experience as it intersects with creative
practice. “Creative Cartography,” for example, invited high school students and emerging
artists to co-facilitate a creative and critical inquiry on mapmaking that explored how artists
use maps to understand and explain themselves and the world around them. They approached
the practice of mapmaking as a creative art form and a human impulse that has occurred
throughout the ages.

New Urban Arts seeks to empower young people to develop a life long creative practice. We
believe that an active imagination provides young people the freedom to envision new
possibilities for themselves and the world. Too many children learn in adolescence that they
are not creative. They drop their crayons, stop moving freely, and lose their singing voices. As
Maxine Green argues in her book, “Releasing the Imagination,” an artistic practice develops
strong imaginations and opens eyes to possibility. While confronting innumerable challenges,
the imagination, fueled by practice in the arts, enables urban youth to express who they are
and who they might become.

Through the Art Inquiry, New Urban Arts utilizes the creative arts as a catalyst for discussion
and inquiry. Posing questions rather than answering them, prompts students to explore the
"why" rather than simply the "how" behind mapmaking as a significant tradition of the human
experience. This approach promotes critical inquiry, analysis, interpretation and exchange of
ideas about ourselves and the world we live in. Program curriculum incorporates a balance of
methods to guide creative exploration, with an emphasis on reflection and sharing ideas.

Students meet over five weeks in July and August, for 10-12 hours each week. Students
collaborate on mapmaking activities in workshops led by artists and staff that covered a
variety of media including photography, painting drawing, architecture, collage and
assemblage, creative writing, and sound. These workshops approach mapmaking from the
point of view that it is a creative art form with a longstanding history for analyzing and
interpreting the world we live in. From the earliest star maps to the more contemporary
cartographic concepts such as Google Earth and Mapquest.com, maps have been used as tools
in understanding one's spatial and temporal place in the world on a personal, local, and global
level. They serve functional and philosophical purposes by fulfilling the human need to answer
the enduring questions of “Where am I?” and “Where am I going?” Maps act as visible
historians, which communicate our changing landscapes.

Copyright New Urban Arts, October 2007 5

Cartography resonates with youth as a chance to claim their territory and chart their path,
making sense of their lives and the world around them as they create works that
communicated personal geographies, internal locations, and creative interpretations of the
city they live in. Students apply their understandings and interpretations of cartography to
create original work through self-directed artworks they worked on independently throughout
the summer. These independent projects offer students to drive their own inquiry process.
Some examples include:
• A map that charted the social network of New Urban Arts’ community through tarot
cards
• A binary gender map marking two intersecting paths outlining social undertstandings
of “male” and “female”
• A map that plotted a student’s wishes and dreams along a symbolic photographic key
• A verbal word map using headlines from newspapers across the globe collected on one
day in time

More of these projects are described by the students themselves in interviews with program
participants later in this publication. Students are given “studio days” to complete these
projects, which are blocks of time allotted for independent work in the program schedule.
Often students also find time outside designated program hours to continue their work.
Students are mentored in development and production of the independent project by an artist
who checks in weekly to offer guidance and support.

To further expand the inquiry, youth divide into small groups to design and lead public
workshops that provoke thoughtful dialogue and conversation among diverse Providence
communities. These teaching experiences allow youth to transcend the role of program
participant as they introduce Creative Cartography concepts to others, welcoming new voices
to contribute to their own understanding of mapmaking. Youth development studies report
that the strongest learning experiences involve opportunities to teach new knowledge to
others. During the third week of the program, students are introduced to curriculum planning
methods and learn how to facilitate workshops of their own design. These 60-90 minute
workshops, open to people of all ages, occur at schools, community centers, parks, museums,
and libraries. Each group of students lead at least two workshops, so that they may adapt
their lessons as they become more comfortable in the role of workshop facilitators. Students
receive a modest stipend for their participation, in recognition of the challenging work they
are undertaking during the Art Inquiry.

The program culminated in a gallery exhibition of the work created. Students write extensive
artist statements detailing the intentions, process and reflection behind each artwork, to be
displayed as wall texts in the exhibition. Feedback from the gallery visitors revealed the
significance of these elaborate wall texts, as they allowed the exhibition to exist beyond the
artwork itself, and provided critical context to each work displayed. During the Creative
Cartography Gallery Opening event, in September 2007, gallery visitors went on an audio
walking tour of the neighborhood surrounding New Urban Arts, listening to walking
instructions and insightful commentary recorded on cd through a battery powered cd player.
The event was much like live theater, as strangers and friends shared in an uncommon
experience of a common place. This guided audio tour created by Mix Tape for the City, , a

Copyright New Urban Arts, October 2007 6

radio broadcast on Brown University Student Radio by Providence artists Megan Hall and
Andrew Oesch, featured street sounds and interviews with students, artists, business owners,
and neighbors met along the way. This audio recording can be downloaded for free online at
newurbanarts.org. For best enjoyment of this 30-minute podcast. download it to your portable
player and bring it to New Urban Arts at 743 Westminster Street, then press play. For out-
of-towners or those who cannot make the trip, listen at home and enjoy an imaginary trip
around our neighborhood.

The Art Inquiry is centered in a humanistic approach, supported through a scholar/artist in

residence. During Summer of 2006, Pete Hocking, served as the scholar/artist for Creative
Cartography by continually offering resources, perspective and knowledge that deepened
curriculum program development. Hocking also led students in numerous workshops
throughout the summer, including a final art critique in which students presented their
independent projects. He spent time inside our studio creating his own artwork relevant to the
thematic inquiry, and developed relationships with the students and artists involved in the Art
Inquiry. These new works were included in the culminating exhibition. We were fortunate to
find a scholar who was able to contribute both intellectual and creative capital to the project,
as a working artist and Providence historian.

Copyright New Urban Arts, October 2007 7

I. Mapping Your Neighborhood and Community
Each map is personal reflection of how we connect to our environment.
How do we know the city we live in? How do we understand it? The
following section includes activities devised to explore these questions,
navigating perceptions and memories of external landscapes as a way
to better understand the human impulse to locate itself.

“Memory Map of My Neighborhood” by student, Mary Adewusi, 17 years old

What do our maps imply about us?

What stories do they tell?

Copyright New Urban Arts, October 2007 8

 Memory Map
How do you get to New Urban
Arts?

Begin with visual mediation, close

your eyes, travel back, step by
step, what do you smell, what you
do hear, what do you see… Try to
remember what you forget to
notice and acknowledge about this
everday trip. Then draw the
journey on white paper. Hang up
the works and discuss them as a
group.

“Memory Map” by student, Elizabeth Keith, 16 years old

Directions Map
Break into groups. Pretend you are a tourist, and ask for directions from someone on the
street to a place in Providence, such as the mall or Brown University. Notice how people
“speak” directions. What terms do they use to verbally map the city? Street names? North,
South West, East? Local landmarks? After receiving directions, return to New Urban Arts
and create a map using ONLY the directions you were given, no matter if you disagree with
this route or not. Discuss each group’s experience with the activity. How did the person
interviewed influence the directions they gave you? Does it matter if they are walking or
driving a car? Does it matter what age they are? How do we give directions? What does it
reveal our relationships to places?

Then create your own map

to a significant place in
your life, a favorite spot of
yours in the city. It can be
a park, a restaurant, a
friend’s house, etc.

Give detailed directions so

that a stranger can find
this special place on their
own.

“Map of Direction to the Pond” by student, Jenna Sanchez, 17

Copyright New Urban Arts, October 2007 9
Route Mapping
Read aloud writing from collection of short stories, The Walk by Robert Walser (1982).
Let his words inspire your own walk. Using an existing dice from a board game, or by
creating your own 6 sided cube with paper or cardboard, make a dice reads “Left,” “Right,”
“Reverse,” “Straight,” “Stop,” and “Talk” on each side. Using this dice, take a walk. At the
end of each block, or on more random intervals during the walk, throw the dice.

Upon return, create a route map of the walk including your observations and insights along
the way. Notice how each person records the same route differently. Discuss route mapping.
Everyday, we each create our own maps of the city, whether we record them or not. They are
saved in our memory. What routes do you take each day? What are the landmarks on your
mental maps?

“Memory Map” by student, Ricky Cantor, 17 years old

Audio Maps/ Walking Tours

Explore a particular path in your neighborhood in great detail, researching both the mundane
and the significant. Go to places like historical societies and libraries to find more
information about places on your chosen walk. Interview residents and business owners about
the area. Record these interviews. Use information collected to create an audio map of your
path in the form of a walking tour that others can follow. Give a set of directions for people to
follow, much like a cooking recipe.

Copyright New Urban Arts, October 2007 10

Scavenger Hunt
Flex your spatial intelligence *

WHAT YOU FIND MAY BE A SPECIFIC:

PLACE (find your way to a unique spot)
OBJECT (retrieve a business card from White Electric)
OBSERVATION (someone picking their nose)
. . . DEMAND PROOF OF COMPLETION!

Divide into two teams, and devise a scavenger hunt for the other team. Try to create clues
that require measurement, silliness, direction, landmarks, chance, riddles, questions to
answer, imagination and investigation. Feel free to make directions open ended and
conditional to let the scavengers work in an abstract space.

The following two scavenger hunts were devised by high school students at New Urban arts
for their peers.

Hunt and Gather Approach:

1. Find the number of the payphone in a place where fire meets water.
2. Find a headpiece for a king.
3. Find a tool for drinking at a place that microwaves eggs.
4. Find a bus schedule for a route that directly passes Providence Place Mall.
5. Find a publication from a building whose name has 2letters and 3 digits.
6. Find a menu from a restaurant with a red star.
7. Find a flyer from people above sea level who want clean water.
8. Find a coin older than New Urban Arts.
9. Find a business card from a person or company on the street named after
10. Showtunes Central.
11. Find something made from a robot’s stomach contents.

Sequentional Approach:
1. Bring a menu from Winter Street across from the Bank.
2. Face East towards the heart of the city from where you got the menu, and walk
down the street to your left until our first president turns scaly.
3. Get proof by taking a clover from the red octagon.
4. Cross the street to the energized bush and bring back its energy.
5. Buy a jeep by taking down its license plate and drive down the street.
6. Take caution, your new jeep just broke down. Don’t get caught in a snow drift on
your to Silver Lake to get your jeep towed.
7. Have some electric “nachos” on the other side of West Fountain.
8. Face East and walk towards the yellow and green doggie john.
9. Find Jacob’s light and walk towards it. Make a right at the train station.

Copyright New Urban Arts, October 2007 11

Be at Tourist in Your Own Town
Visit a hotel in downtown Providence and ask for a map, disguising yourself as a tourist.
Investigate what is included on this map and what isn’t. Does this map tell the story you
would of Providence? What map would you give to tourists? Mark an “x” over locations you
would not include in your own version of a map for tourists. Circle locations on the map that
you would also include in yours. Add in locations missing from the map, along with your
insights and knowledge of Providence such as urban legends, warnings about neighborhoods,
city secrets, etc. Post these maps and discuss as a group.

Mapping through Audio and Found Objects

Record the life of one city block, and bring it back into the studio to construct a living map
made from found objects, garbage, photographs, drawings, people, sounds, buildings,
textures, and interviews. In pairs, select a different focus to document.

You can decide to document the natural life and retrieve a leaf from each tree on the city
block. You can record the business names. You can make rubbings to document the textures
of the street or record license plate numbers and bus stops. You can interview passerbyers on
the block. Peek into shops, alleys, cars and newspaper boxes with a camera.

Inspired by a map that charted out which houses

had pumpkins on a specific city block, we recorded
the life on Cranston Street featuring varied
methods described above. The data was first plotted
on a base map that was created on large butcher
paper outlining only city parcels to give structure
and spatial reference. The different elements
collected were placed where they belonged
according to our experience on the street. A sound
collage was recorded onto a CD accompanied by a
map key that coordinated tracks on the cd with the
“Sound Installation of Cranston Street,” with
interviews and noise collected by students for
specific locations where the sound was recorded.
gallery visitors to listen to.

Blind Drawing
In order to begin drawing more interpretive maps, close your eyes and blindly draw the street
you live on using a large sheet of newsprint paper. Include as many details as possible that
make up the block. After five to ten minutes, remove your blindfold and examine the results.
As a group, share stories with how the drawing was intended, compared to what was actually
represented on paper. This discussion will provoke new understanding of spatial memory and
representation in the context of creative cartography.

Copyright New Urban Arts, October 2007 12

Map of Awesome: What Providence do you live in?
During a visit to the Providence Plan, look at aerial view maps of neighborhoods
in Providence. Note what’s missing from your neighborhood on these maps. Compare
statistical and perceived neighborhood boundaries.

Now it’s your turn to manipulate spatial data using ArcMap GIS software. Create one giant
map how/where young people, from different neighborhoods and schools, spend their time in
Providence. How does this change during different times of day? How does this change during
different seasons? To create data, plot your own perspectives or to increase the sample size,
survey your peers.

The “Map of Awesome” was declared as such

during shared wonderment at how large it was
once finally printed. Since maps are usually
handed down from academia and the government,
they typically reflect the understanding and
perspective of their creators rather than their
users. The Map of Awesome! (aka MOA!) is
significant because it’s made by youth for youth.

87 Opper Street

Park, Library,
Bus stop.
Clerk in the Spanish Store.
Next Door Neighbor.
“Map of Awesome,” plotting where high school Auto shop workers.
students spend their time in Providence. Rotten Fruit.
Ocean Smell.
Neighborhood Poem Dogs. Cars. Kids.
My next-door neighbor.
o List 3 public spaces in your neighborhood. Garbage day.
o List 3 neighborhood characters. Parking lots,
o List 2 familiar smells from your neighborhood. Street lamp,
o List 3 familiar noises in your neighborhood. Sunset.
o List 3 things you dislike about your neighborhood. Kids.
o List 4 things you like about your neighborhood Charles’ Business District Sign.
o List 2 creative spaces in your neighborhood. Mural on Garcia’s Market.

Read these lists out loud to each other. Use your address By Mary Adewusi, 17
as the title of your poem. Then add, subtract, edit
and finalize your list to create a list poem.

Copyright New Urban Arts, October 2007 13

II. Mapping Your Self and Identity
This section includes activities that explore how maps can
communicate highly complex ideas such as issues of identity and
culture, mapping our emotional landscapes and internal locations.

“Self Map” by student, Elizabeth Keith, 16 years old

WE USE MAPS TO KNOW WHERE WE

ARE GOING. WE MAKE MAPS TO
KNOW WHERE WE HAVE BEEN.

Copyright New Urban Arts, October 2007 14

Compass Points
As a group, determine which way is North, then identify South, West, and East. Select items
to signal these directions such as a light switch or doorway. Have the entire group meet in the
center of the room. Then direct all students with a sibling to “Go South.” Students without
siblings remain in the center of the room. Everyone silently learns more about one another as
the game continues. Allow students to give directions. Encourage them to be respectful of one
another and not ask for information that is too personal. Examples:

Anyone who is the middle child in their family, go North.

Anyone who is the youngest child, go West,.
Anyone who is the oldest child, go West.
Everyone go North.
Anyone who speaks a language other than English, go East.
Anyone that speaks that language fluently, go South.
Anyone who was born in another country, go West.
Everyone come to the middle of the room.
Anyone went to bed before 10pm last night go North.
Anyone who went to bed after midnight , go West
Anyone who ate breakfast this morning, go South.

Success Map
What does “success” mean to you? How will you know if you are successful? Do you
feel successful now? Have you ever felt successful? What is the stereotypical definition
of success? How do you achieve success? How are you told to achieve success? Draw a
map towards your definition of success. How will you get there? Include paths that will
not get you there., roads that deviate from your path to success.

Self Map
Take a digital self portrait. Use Paint Shop Pro software to add text that outlines the
timeline of your life. Experiment with how time is told. Also, feel free to use a palm rather
than your face as the image.

Dream Map
What did you dream about last night? Do you remember the plot? Who was in the dream? Or
do
you have a reoccurring dream? Make a map of a dream you had while sleeping.

Copyright New Urban Arts, October 2007 15

Mood Map
What would a map of your temper look like? What are the buttons that make you mad once
they are pushed? What makes you laugh? Make a road map for your emotions.

Map of My Day “Map of My Day” by student, Elizabeth Keith, 16 years old

Everyone has daily rituals.

Waking up, eating, getting ready,
school, work, email, music, tv, etc.
In chronological order,
make a list of what you do each day
that in general remains the same.
Include the mundane but also the
quirky and surprising rituals of
your day. Make a visual map of
your day from this list.

Concept Charts
Examine the work of Nigel Holmes. How are diagrams and charts related to cartography? On
a medical chart of the heart, answer free writing prompts like what do you bleed and where is
your heart? Then, section off areas of the heart for things you love, attaching amounts of
space to signify how much you love them. Ask yourself, where do you spend your love most?

Copyright New Urban Arts, October 2007 16

Point of No Return
Where have you been? Where are you going? Where do you want to go? Where do you not
want to go? What grade are you in? Do you have the same friends now as you did before?
Where do you fit in? Have you made any major decisions in your life? Have you had any
major changes in your life?

Discuss the point of no return rule in driving. If you are in the intersection while the light
turns, you cannot stop, you cannot go back, you must keep going. Have you had points of no
return in your life?

Map an intersection you are at in your life, a map charting your point of no return.

My point of no return is moving from My point of no return as I saw it was the

Illinois to Rhode Island. I made my map to decision in high school to go into math
resemble a highway with exits. The one-way and sciences instead of music and art,
street symbolizes how I can never go back with the intention of a college education
to IL and even if I wanted to go back, I and then a job in the engineering field.
couldn’t. After I had developed some skills in math
and physics, I passed the initial point of
no return and found a bridge that would
–- Elizabeth Keith, student, 16 years old
lead me back to my love of the arts.

-- Kian Shenfield, student, 17 years old

Copyright New Urban Arts, October 2007 17

III. Mapping Imaginary Places and Ideas
Maps can do more than record and interpret reality; they can outline
the unreal, the imagined and the abstract. The following section
includes activities devised to explore maps .

WHAT PATHS OF POSSIBILITY

DO MAPS HOLD?

Copyright New Urban Arts, October 2007 18

Psychogeography
Discuss psychogeography. It was first coined by the Situationist, Guy Debord. It describes the
specific effects of the geographical environment on the emotions and behavior of individuals.
Look up projects from the ProvFlux festival in Providence. Collaboratively create your own
psychogeographic experiment.

U.S Map Treatment

Redesign the map of the US with clippings from the newspaper to make the map more
current, less dated. Add artistic touches such as collage, watercolor, drawings, poetry.
Screenprint stereotypes or opinions of each area onto the map.

This map was created during a summer

workshop with a visiting artist, Anna
Mulligan. Secrets, commentary and inside
jokes are embedded into the altered map,
recording our understandings of each area.
For example, the only thing our students
knew about Oklahoma was the musical and so
the actual score from the musical’s song
Oklahoma was written into the landscape of
its namesake.

Postcard Narratives
Look at postcards from Providence. What story do they tell about the city? Is it a realistic
interpretation or imaginary? Collage postcards of Providence and Rhode Island over a map of
the city. Create an alternative to this constructed narrative by incorporating more accurate
and/or personal narrations of Providence with your knowledge and experiences of the city.

Create a postcard of your own to an imaginary place. Read aloud the poem, “Place You’ve
Never Been” by Mark Strand. In response to the poem, collage a 4x6 note card with
magazines and text. On the other side of the notecard, write a postcard to someone of your
choice beginning with the line “I am writing from a place you have never been.”

Conversation Map
Who did you talk to yesterday? What was one conversation you had or overheard that was
somewhat interesting? What are some lines that were said? Map a conversation you had
yesterday. Include what you remember and also address what you forget. Map things meant
but left unsaid.

Copyright New Urban Arts, October 2007 19

IV. Interviews with Students
The depth of the summer art inquiry was most apparent in the
individual projects students initiated on their own. These self directed
inquiry projects are described in the following interviews with student
participants. One student created a verbal world map using headlines
from newspapers across the globe. Another student mapped the social
network of the New Urban Arts’ community. Student reflections were
collected through surveys taken before and after the program,
extensive artist statements describing artistic intentions and process,
journal questions, and online interviews.

Student, Aneudy Alba, 18 years old, presents his independent project

“Misconceptions of Me” at the final art critique led by scholar/artist Peter Hocking

WHERE CAN MAPS TAKE US?

Copyright New Urban Arts, October 2007 20

The following is an interview with Kian Shenfield, 17, a student in the Creative
Cartography program, about his experience exploring maps as an artistic
practice.
Can you tell me what you did as a part of this program?
I created a Binary Gender Expectation map. It was the most physically large as well as most
physically exerting artistic project I have ever undertaken. It was also my first project
that started with a concrete idea and actually followed through on it. My goal was to explore
some of the conventional black-and-white notions people in our society have about male and
female roles. I didn't intend to directly challenge these notions, but in the process of finding
words that people associate with each gender, I discovered a lot of contradictions and
amusing juxtapositions in the word paths.

Binary Gender Expectation Map

by Kian Shenfield, student, 17
years old

What are some highlights from the experience?

Actually finishing big projects! Learning in an environment that was totally different from
school and a lot more involved. Meeting artists who were willing to candidly show us parts of
their lives in their work. Audio stuff that turned out more awesome than expected.

Tell me about “Creative Cartography.” What is your definition?

The way I interpreted the art in mapmaking was largely through language, just because I
love language. The words people use to describe things can give lots of insight into a person's
cultural perspective, which plays into geography and location and all that lovely map stuff,
because the way people portray their locations does that too.

How did the art inquiry influence your creative practice?

I want to do more map-type stuff, which is surprising.

Copyright New Urban Arts, October 2007 21

The following is an interview with Shaonessy Santana, 14, a student in the
Creative Cartography program, about her experience exploring maps as an
artistic practice.

Why were you interested in the Creative Cartography summer program?

I was interested in this program because I was interested in learning something new and it
really sounded like fun to me.

Can you tell me what you did as a part of this program?

I created maps to be displayed in the exhibition at the end of the summer. My independent
map, Quinsanera, lays out the key elements of my fifteenth birthday party, which I spent all
summer planning. The backdrop was a fan because that was my party favor.

What did you discover during this summer program?

I discovered how to show more detail in my work, how to notice important details and how to
know what details were more specifically needed than others.

What are some highlights from the experience?

Some highlights I have from this experiment is going to different places in the area to draw
buildings and houses and things around us.

Tell me about “Creative Cartography.” What is your definition?

My definition of Creative Cartography is creating maps but with a twist. You are not just
drawing streets, and street lights you're actually drawing the things that are surrounding you
such as houses and buildings.

My Quinsanera,
an independent project
by student, Shaonessy
Santana, 14 years old

Copyright New Urban Arts, October 2007 22

The following is an interview with Jenna Sanchez 16, a student in the Creative
Cartography program, about her experience exploring maps as an artistic
practice.
Why were you interested in the Creative Cartography summer program?
Because I didn’t know what the word cartography was.

Can you tell me what you did as a part of this program?

We made maps, of course. And we taught kids about maps. And we made one gigantic map.

What did you discover during this summer program?

I discovered what the word cartography meant! And now I use it. It’s part of my vocabulary.
I don’t hate maps anymore! I’m not scared to look at them like I was before. I even took my
dad to Boston using a map.

What are some highlights from the experience?

I worked with kids without getting impatient. And we walked A LOT. A lot of walking.

Tell me about “Creative Cartography.” What is your definition?

More than just 2-dimensional line art, more than just street names. It can even be an audio
map!

Tour Of Myself,
an independent project
by student, Jenna
Sanchz, 16 years old

Tour of Myself is a map of my most important attributes, my legs, arms and head. Each body
part connects to the other, but not just physically. I’ve never created artwork on myself
before, just of myself. I felt the piece needed to be private, yet public. That’s why I made the
envelopes that viewers can open and read. I was trying to get people to touch the piece, trying
to get them to open the envelopes and read, kind of interactive and hands-on art. The
envelopes act as a legend to my map, as the colors of the envelopes correlate with the colors
in the image of myself, which are used to define my most important attributes.

Copyright New Urban Arts, October 2007 23

V. Writing an Artist Statement for Creative Cartography

WRITE YOUR NAME:

TITLE OF WORK:

DESCIBE THE ART YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT NOW:

WHAT MATERIALS DID YOU USE IN MAKING THE WORK?

WHY DID YOU PICK THESE MATERIALS?

WHERE DID THE IDEA COME FROM? WHAT INSPIRED YOU?

WHAT IS BEING MAPPED IN THIS PIECE?

Copyright New Urban Arts, October 2007 24

DESCRIBE THE SPATIAL RELATIONSHIPS DEPICTED IN THE WORK.
HOW DO THINGS CONNECT?

WHAT WERE SOME OF THE EMOTIONS YOU EXPERIENCED WHILE MAKING

THE PIECE?

WHAT WERE YOU THINKING ABOUT WHEN MAKING THIS PIECE?

WHAT WERE YOU TRYING TO SAY IN THIS PIECE?

HOW DOES THIS RELATE TO ARTWORK YOU HAVE ALREADY MADE?

OR, DID THIS PIECE ENCOURAGE YOU TO TRY SOMETHING NEW WITH THE
ART YOU MAKE?

SHOUT OUTS:

Copyright New Urban Arts, October 2007 25

VI. Resources for Creative Cartography

o You Are Here by Katharine Harmon

o MAPSPROJECT by Chicago artist Lori Ann Napoleon, www.subk.net/maps.htmlT
o The Mape Center, Providence RI, www.mapcenter.com
o The Providence Plan, a non-profit organization in Providence using maps as tools to
influence the decisions of community leaders and policymakers. www.provplan.org
o Blog by the Toronto Psychogeography Society, http://www.psychogeography.ca/
o Provflux, an annual festival dedicated to artistic and social investigations into urban
reality and imagination in Providence, Rhode Island. www.pipsworks.com
o Temporary Documents by Graphic Designer Jennifer Cash explores incidental moments of
human intersection can be made visible through information design and cartography in her
master’s thesis for the Rhode Island School of Design. http://www.thesis.jennifercash.com/
o The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History by Dolores Hayden
o Mapping the World: An Illustrated History of Cartography by Ralph E. Ehrenberg
o The Practice of Every Life by Michel de Certeau
o Maps of the Imagination by Peter Turchi
o Mapmaker Revisited by Beatriz Badikian
o Wayfinding Behavior by Reginald Golledge
o The Power of Maps by Denis Wood
o 1,2,3,4 by Nigel Holmes
o The Dictionary of Imaginary Planes by Alberto Manguel
o Cartographic Fictions by Karen Lynnea Piper
o Else/Where: Mapping by Janet Abramsl
o Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
o The House of Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

Copyright New Urban Arts, October 2007 26

“Few people, upon finding themselves utterly lost would throw
up their hands in despair and cry ‘Hand me that book of art!!’ Yet the
connection between maps and art is ancient. Long before maps were
made guides from Point A to B, they were cultural documents,
pictorials of an idyllic land of which the cartographer dreamed. They
were more than pages of objective geography; they were idealized
statements as to how people view their surroundings. Artists would
color maps by candelight, with the same beauty others used to paint
church walls. Holding a map was to hold the whole world in ones hand
– they allowed people to imagine exotic lands, to feel part of a larger
space and develop wanderlust.”

- Margaret Knowles

Copyright New Urban Arts, October 2007 27