Wofford College - Atlas Project Spring 2013

Goodall Center

The Northside Narrative Atlas Project

In spring 2013 I assigned my environmental humanities class (ENVS 202) a unit project based on Denis Wood’s book EVERYTHING SINGS maps for a narrative atlas (siglio, Los Angeles 2010). T Fitch

Wood’s book surveys Boylan Heights, his small historic neighborhood in Raleigh, NC, and attempts to “subvert the traditional notions of mapmaking to discover new ways of seeing both this place in particular and the nature of the place itself.”

Wood’s maps are varied and professionally done. (He is a geographer.) He maps alleyways, the rhythm of the sun, lights at night, public and private trees, sidewalk graffiti, wind chimes, view sheds, autumn trees, and many other things. These maps describe what NPR radio commentator Ira Glass calls in the introduction “human lives without ever showing us any people.”

My class attempted to pull something similar off, but with even more urgency. Wood’s Boylan Heights is a stable neighborhood, one of the oldest in Raleigh. The Northside is vanishing before our eyes. A large redevelopment project is underway and many of the houses in the 400-acre former village had already been cleared when we started our work. Because of this urgency I asked the students to survey the remaining material culture of the former mill village, the Northside area across Church Street from Wofford College, and capture some remaining aspect of it.

Using inspiration from Wood’s maps my students explored the Northside for several weeks. These maps are the result of their work. Some of what they mapped is already gone.

John Lane

The Maps:

E Rhea