Mapping Me

This work was inspired from research I did as part of a liberal arts class entitled Social Geographies of Art, Design, and Community Practice. We studied how social groups were devised, formed, and/or created over time as well as their effects on global society. The class focused on how art, design, and community involvement can use mapping and other visual representations to asses and understand the different social geographies of the world. 

Before we could understand others though, we were asked to assess ourselves and attempt to map our own personal geographies. I chose to use my physical body as a way to create a map a of a selection of my social geographies. I collected photographs that I have taken over the course of the past six or seven years. I then matched a part of my body to a social geography as well as a piece of physical geography that I have come into contact with over the course of my life. As well as calling up specific memories of the place recorded in the photograph, each piece of physical geography has a symbolic meaning that reveals a little more about the social geography that it also represents. This new map creates a surreal landscape that maps who I am at this point in time through where I have been. 

Detail & Process