An exploration into how familiar we are with the places we live. As someone who has lived in the same town for my whole life, I always thought I knew the place really well (after this I realised I don’t). The purpose of these two maps was to compare the actual town (A Town), with how much of it I have set foot upon (My Town).

A Town is a simple map including every street/road and not much else. This is partly because I am fascinated with the “shapes” of urban areas; much like fingerprints they are all unique. However by only including roads it provides some element of anonymity, unless you are also fascinated by the shapes of towns you are very unlikely to recognise it or attach any emotion to it.

My Town only includes roads that I can remember having walked along at least once. There are also off-road paths I have walked along, shortcuts I have taken, green spaces I have been to, and even more mundane things such as bus stops I’ve used. These small things are what makes a place ours, rather than just anywhere. In a way it is my visual footprint, and what I like is that every single person who lives there will have a different one.

    

Both maps have been designed in a large physical format ideally for print, therefore won’t be of optimum quality when viewed on screen.