COLLECTIVE CARTOGRAPHY :
Mapping Perceived Barriers

Starting in October 2016, Evanston residents and workers were invited to map their version of Evanston during a 3-hour workshop called Collective Cartography. (Learn more here.) During the workshop, participants were asked to re-imagine, and in fact re-draw their community through a few specific lenses: places and things they need to survive (think grocery stores, schools, favorite cafes, etc.), barriers to those resources (physical, social, institutional, tangible and intangible), and prospects for bridging those gaps to build a more equitable Evanston.

While each conversation differed based on who was present - their employed role, gender, age, race - the contributions of participants came to create notable patterns across the 17 maps that were eventually made over about 2.5 years of workshops. This page is devoted to examining the Perceived Barriers from Collective Cartography participants - forthwith called simply the Cartographers.

Because these lines would be simply that - lines - without context, a simple documentation of the conversation within the workshop time is included here. As mentioned above, some of these lines are patterns; they have come from the essentialization of observations made my Cartographers across many workshops. But, some of these barriers are stark observations that came up in one workshop, but seemed to essentialize conversations that happened (or notably did not) happen in others.

To explore this map…

You first will want to click on the lines on the map above to see what these lines mean. You will find a title of this barrier and description of what it stands for. You can turn the layers on and off if you want to see what simple geographies are created. Then, you can find out more about the Cartographers’ context in the Context Clues found next to the image of the original map below. Lastly, you might want to ask the Encountering Questions seen at the bottom of the page.

Context Clues

Unlike other maps you may have seen, this is definitively unfinished. This is an oversimplified collection of observations of a small segment of Evanston’s population. But, this should not diminish the significance of these observations. While historical maps often seek to the “The Truth,” this map collects instances of perspective, and thus function as space of storytelling, of truth-telling from the many stories, the many truly lived lives in a community. Can we find chapters of our own story here? Can we find strands of our own known truth?

BEACH ACCESS : EQUITY OPTIONAL
Beach access, the use of tokens, and the lack of public pools was mentioned in the majority of workshops. Many cartographers decided to line the entire shoreline with dollar signs to show what stood in the way of an Evanstonian’s walk to one of the largest sources of fresh water, leisure, and beauty in town.

THE GATES OF HEAVENSTON
Nearly every map made by local cartographers represented some significant border between the northwest part of town and the rest - walls, mountains, . While the moniker “Heavenston” often used to describe the town in general, the cartographer’s notes make it clear that this myth is only manifest for those who have the means for the lawns, homes, and resources typified in the the north.

UNIVERSITY FENCE
“Resentment,” reads the sign on the wall drawn around the university. This particular group of cartographers struggled a bit to tap into more illustrative expressions of intangible barriers, and needed a little pressure. But, the critique was there! After pressing, the group labeled their abstract symbols, “resentment,” “equity,” “safety,” and “attitude” - weighty words to define barriers diving the town.

EVANTON RIO GRANDE
This unique map feature appeared on only one map, a map made by staff of the City of Evanston. This particular map was unsurprisingly technical, pulling from expertise of City systems and regions. However, when pushed beyond the tangible, a Latinx woman lead the drawing this thick blue line across Evanston, stating, “This is the line that many residents attempt to, but cannot cross.”

WALL OF SEGRE-SEPARATION
During the South Evanston workshop, participants had highlighted some highlights of this densely populated region as “walkable” and laden with parks. But, when identifying barriers, one young cartographer drew two walls with thick gray lines across the southern third of the map and through the northwestern quarter. We discussed what these walls were holding and the young Southeast Asian man went to label them, starting: “Wall of Segre -” and stopped, “oops! Maybe I meant separation.” He looked embarrassed by his unintended directness. This wall retains this confused name, Segre-Separation, to note what power social understandings hold to determine who is, or feels, welcome in a place.

Encountering Questions

In order to more deeply encounter this map, consider the following:

• Do I resonate with these findings? What might I add to these barriers?

• How might I be encountering this space differently than the Cartographers?

• What roles (gender, sex, race, income, employment, language) determine how I encounter these barriers in everyday life?

• Do I contribute the building of these barriers?

• How might I counter or deconstruct these barriers for the sake of a more liberated community?