For May’s Art Block dinner conversation, we discussed “Social Analytics Mapping.” This type of mapping uses information gleaned from surveys to create visual maps of how communities are connected. During our conversation, we thought, talked, and drew pictures about how we define the roles we play (are we nodes, sources, or targets?) and what our personal maps would look like of a healthy, thriving community. Thank you to all the Art Block artists present, Florence Hill, Andrea Jenkins, Blayn Lemke, Neil Sontag, Xavier Tavera, and Carei Thomas who termed “Sociography” and provided the language in italics.
The following poem was written by Molly Van Avery after the dinner conversation with the 2015 Art Block leaders in May.
“Sociography”
lay your map down before me
are our roads the same roads?
do I find my way to you
over bridges
rivers streets or through houses
we play our part in something larger
than any one of us
so lay your circle down
before me
let us center our between-ness
we know the same things
in each of our own ways
we know the same things
in each of our own ways
we call each other by name
marveling at unshadowed healing
our world views become concentric
sharing the same illuminated center