‘Ooh it were mucky’: mapping memories of New Basford, Nottingham

Abstract

Using a ‘geo/graphic’ map of New Basford, Nottingham as its starting point, and contextualising this within critical approaches to map-making and contemporary critical cultural geographies, this article subverts traditional cartographic principles in foregrounding the everyday, lived experiences of place. It explores the possibilities inherent in both narrative and design in the construction of a typo/graphic re-mapping of New Basford that resists a palimpsestual, chronological view of place. In doing so it explores how one might map the relationship of stories to place and articulate the map making process itself. Bringing together cartesian fragments alongside autoethnographic excerpts, participants’ memories, archival texts, contemporary newspaper headlines and photographs, the article’s empirical section creates a narrative that employs typography and image in a way that situates the reader within the process of mapmaking and an unfolding experience of New Basford. In reflecting on this process of re-mapping place, the article contributes insights as to the challenges of incorporating temporality within maps and print; the limitations of a palimpsestual approach; and the opportunities offered by traditional Cartesian references. Furthermore, it highlights how typography and design can contribute to the construction of a legible, yet ‘messy’ narrative of place framed within the less traditional Euclidian space of the page.