Tools for Mappers
Lab + Grid aims to recapture the experiences, the vitality of spontaneous creative acts, and the community cohesion that was historically left out of official views of the city. It seeks to amplify the voices that were muted in the process of urban renewal. Mappers can participate in this act of restitution in a variety of ways:
+ Choose an urban renewal site map and superimpose the lived experiences of people living in Newark onto the map as an instrument of depersonalization. Example: reintroduce neighborhood sounds, highlighting their creative, unruly energy.
+ Choose a larger city map and plot out the affective, cultural, or sensory experiences of city residents. Example: map out venues of LGBTQ+ sociability or jazz clubs that flourished in Newark.
+ Make a completely new map, as a collage or in another artistic genre, that tells a story about Newark. Example: make a futuristic map, seen from the 1960s, of what Newark might have looked like if the master plans had been followed.
Further Suggested Readings = books/catalogues with examples of map-making and the visual language of urban renewal.
