The Dark Duplex - map 1, april 2004

Mental maps are not terribly accurate to the exact measurements of a space. The maps impressed in our minds convey our sense of a place more than hard, objective facts, just as the memories we carry of the street we grew up on are more meaningful than the exact mileage of it. A neighborhood, like a home, is a state of mind that varies from one person’s awareness to the next, and these personal maps are the world we live in. Tracing back from ancient petroglyphs and cave paintings at Lascaux all the way to digital cameras and electronic journals or blogs, humans have a tendancy to document their lives and externalize their memories lest they peel off and disappear. Documenting the external world is documenting ourselves, and asking for a map is like saying, tell me what you know.

We all know infinitely more than we think....and what we ‘actually’ know is quite different than what we ‘think’ we know. To put this idea to practical use, I decided to meet with a fellow named Atom, who had graciously constructed this map for me. Unlike most of my situations, he created this map at home; it was a detailed diagram of the street in Minneapolis that he spent 14 years of his childhood living on. For each marked building was a corresponding, fascinating little story about a particular nuance of the place:

“This Krueger mansion had a chapel and a bomb shelter. Supposedly there were secret passageways.”

“Ms. Hall invited our cats into her home. She had a candy dish I liked.”

“We called Chris Biesanz 'Z-Lip' because he bit a phone cord when he was younger which left a scar.”

Note: the box marked "Paul" on the map (upper middle row) was his home.