Making maps and music

The Re-drawing the Map and Re-sounding Margate workshops (20-21 May 2023) are a collaborative effort between me, the Sociologist-in-Residence, and the Sound, Art, Society students.

The workshop is for Margate residents and visitors to think about the ways we navigate the town and re-draw the map from our own perspectives – based on the principles of ‘counter-mapping’ as a method of re-thinking space, ownership and lived experience. It’s about the routes we take, the places we go and the places we don’t.

Setting up / how it works

STEP 1: The public come in for a map-making workshop, with various prompts and questions to help spark ideas and meanings.


STEP 2: The annotated drawings on transparent acetate are either hung up among some prompts or put on display on the overhead projector. Maps can be overlaid on the projection to show patterns.


STEP 3: The drawing process is also captured on a webcam and the video is streamed into the auditorium (on to a 1980s TV – which I suppose keeps in with the analogue tech theme that comes with using an overhead projector), where everyone is invited to make a soundtrack that responds to the routes being drawn and to other prompts.


STEP 4: The sounds they make are played back into the map-making space in the gallery to soundtrack the ongoing drawing process.


Pictures from the event