Mapping In Place

INTRODUCTION

Mapping has a long and complex history; it is a word of many meanings. Too often, it has been a tool used for definition and domination, power and control. And yet, when partaken in honestly, it is an activity rooted in the desire to witness - to observe, to understand, to see, to hear, to touch. “[Maps] help us make sense of the world. They answer questions and tell stories” (Carter).

We have been taught that mapping necessitates distance, that it requires us to separate ourselves from place, people, history. We are told we must come into it as neutral party, as silent object. How much is lost in this distance?

As Indigenous artists, authors, and scholars continue to remind1, we must feel our connection to the land in order to care for it and understand it. How then, might we reconsider the concept of mapping under such a lens? What of mapping as experience, as poetry? What of mapping as the means through which to deepen one’s relationship to place?

Sitting somewhere between the quite literal exercises of Georges Perec (The Species of Spaces) and the Fluxus ‘instructions’ of Yoko Ono (Grapefruit), this collection of ‘exercises’ utilizes the conceptual to examine the environment and our relationship to it. Whether bodily performed or practiced by way of mind, each ‘exercise’ asks the reader to ‘map’ a place by immersing themselves into it.

While these ‘exercises’ are written with specific relation to the site and its history, they are also meant to translate to other spaces and places; pushing us to engage more deeply with the land we occupy, wherever that may be.

Mapping in Place seeks to remind the body and the heart of their critical role in mapping2. How else might we understand an ecology, if we do not remember that we ourselves are crucial parts of it?

SITE

Where the Gardiner intersects with the Humber River. Kabechenong.
Tkaronto.

exercise 01: drawing a line

1. Take with you a long red string.
2. Start at a point of your choosing that fits the following requirements:
a. it is close to the water
b. it is far from other people
3. Drop one end of the string
4. Begin walking towards where people are traveling or gathering, following the water as close as possible.
5. Face forwards as you do.
6. As you walk, drop more string so that you leave a long path of string in your wake.
7. Once you reach the end of your string, drop and stop walking.
8. Look back upon the line you have drawn.
9. What does this line tell you?
10. Pick up the string.

exercise 02: touch

1. Start at one end of the path along the water.
2. Approach the water at the nearest possible point, and cup it momentarily with your hands.
3. Return to the path and begin walking to the other end.
4. Every three steps, return to the water and cup it in your hands again.
5. Every time a boundary prevents you from reaching the water, note it down.
6. Touch the boundary and write down how it feels.
7. When you are done, compare the touch of the boundary with the touch of the water.
8. Touch your own skin.

exercise 03: corporeal archive

1. Choose a body part for this exercise.
2. Take 3 markers of different colors with you, assign them labels of A, B, & C.
3. Visit the site.
4. For every human footprint you find, mark an x on your chosen body part with marker A.
5. For every animal footprint or marking you find, mark an x on your chosen body part with marker B.
6. For every vehicle track you find, mark an x on your chosen body part with marker C.
7. When you are done, or when you have run out of space, go home.
8. Wash the marker off of you; scrub as needed.
9. Look at your newly clean skin.
10. Consider how this exercise has made you feel.

exercise 04: itinerary

1. Visit [the site] as soon as you wake up.
2. Eat breakfast in a spot of your choosing.
3. Leave.
4. Return for lunch, this time sitting by the water
5. Sit so close to the water that you are afraid of getting wet.
6. Leave.
7. Return for dinner, this time sitting firmly on land.
8. Sit as far from the water as you can, without losing sight of it.
9. Go home.
10. Before you sleep, draw a map of everywhere you have been.

exercise 05: birdwatching

1. Stand under the highway.
2. Close your eyes.
3. Listen for 5 minutes.
4. Open them.
5. Stand just to the side of the highway above, so you can now see the cars.
6. Watch the cars pass, with eyes open.
7. Blink as little as possible.
8. Stay like this for 10 minutes.
9. Try to remember how it feels to watch birds.

exercise 06: untitled

Explore as if you have never seen light or shadow ever before.

exercise 07: scene in eight parts

One at a time, play the part of
1. the water
2. the ground
3. the cars
4. the highway
5. the bridge
6. the plants
7. the birds
Refuse to play the part of yourself, just for a little while.

exercise 08: counting distance

1. Walk the length of the bridge but stop in the middle for 5 minutes.
2. Take half the time to watch the water, and the other half to watch the people.
3. Walk the length of the bridge again, this time without stopping.
4. Run the length of the bridge, without stopping.
5. Run the length of the bridge and then past it, until you can no longer see the bridge behind you.
6. Do not return for a month.
7. After a month, return to the middle of the bridge and watch the water.
8. Stay as long as you need and keep time as you do.
9. Count the number of seconds the reconnection takes you.

exercise 09: guide to berry-picking

1. Choose one of the following actions:
a. Eat every berry you see. (death)
b. Do not eat any of the berries you see. (ignorance)
c. Research every berry before you decide whether or not to eat it, even if you do not intend to eat any at all. (knowledge)

exercise 10: sketch artist

1. Prepare your drawing materials.
2. Set yourself down somewhere along the path.
3. Face the water.
4. Next to you, make a sign that says ‘FREE PORTRAITS’
5. When someone asks you for a portrait, have them stay still in front of you.
6. Draw the space behind them, as you remember it;
the land, the water, the animals, the people.
7. When you hand them the portrait, do not say anything.

exercise 11: how to use Google Maps

1. Write down the name of this place, as defined by Google Maps.
2. Write down the name of this place, as you know it.
3. Research the original names this place has been given, before Google Maps.
4. Write those names down.
5. Write those names down again.
6. Learn how to say them properly.
7. Take a screenshot of the place on Google Maps.
8. Overwrite it with the original names, the ones given before states and phones.
9. Make this overwritten screenshot the lock screen on your phone.
10. Tell everyone who asks what you’ve done.
11. Keep it like this for a year.

exercise 12: document

1. Take someone with you, and do not tell them what you are doing.
2. Once you are there, stop and take a photograph of everything that catches your eye.
3. If you are doubtful of whether you should take a photograph, take two.
4. Make a photo album.
5. Include the duplicates.

exercise 13: reminder

1. Find a small glass bottle.
2. Fill it with water.
3. Go to the river.
4. Pour the contents of the bottle into the river.
5. Watch the river and the flow of the water.
6. Stay like this until you are ready to leave.
7. Before you leave, fill your glass bottle with water from the river.
8. Take the river water home with you.
9. Put the bottle on your windowsill.
10. Repeat only when you have forgotten what the river sounds like.

exercise 14: voyeur

1. Pick a spot.
2. Settle into it and stay still.
3. Choose an animal (or insect) to observe.
4. Observe the animal (or insect) until you lose track of them or they leave.
5. Choose another animal (or insect) and repeat.
6. Follow this process for 1 hour.
7. Do not leave without thanking the ground.

exercise 15: public art

1. Pick a spot at one end of the bridge.
2. As people pass, ask them if you may ask them a question.
3. Keep tally of those who say no but let them go kindly.
4. Keep tally of those who say yes and ask them if they have or will visit the river today.
5. Write down their answers.
6. If they ask you why you are asking, tell them you are mapping.
7. When you are done, make a drawing.
8. For every “yes” you received, draw a flower.
9. For every “no”, use scissors to make a small cut in the paper.
10. Frame your drawing.

exercise 16: walking tour

1. Walk the trail once, thinking only of yourself.
2. Walk the trail again, this time thinking only of those around you.
3. Walk the trail again, this time thinking only of those who walked it 20 years ago.
4. Walk the trail again, this time thinking only of those who walked it before the land was stolen.
5. Walk the trail again like this.
6. Walk the trail again like this.
7. Walk the trail again like this.
8. Walk the trail again like this.
9. Repeat daily.

exercise 17: settler love note

1. Write everything you love about the place on a piece of paper.
2. Sign it with a thank-you.
3. Seal the letter with wax.
4. As you do, repeat: “I do not own you”
5. Mail yourself the letter.
6. When you open it, repeat: “I do not own you”
7. Read the letter.
8. When you finish reading it, repeat: “Thank-you”