Of alchemy and journeys (part two)

The nitty gritty of my new offerings in "Mappery: Not just for Navigation" - 3 new journeys for you to engage with

Hello again!

Thank you for joining me here again. In my previous letter I shared the road I’ve taken to reconceptualise my Substack. In this letter, I’m going to dive into all the details so that you can get your bearings.

This is another fairly long read, so grab your favourite beverage, get comfy and settle down to read how you can be involved!

The art maps

The process of making the art maps is where I clear my head, lose myself for an hour or so and get creative. Sometimes I make a map that is purely make believe and reflects my love of shape, colour, and lines. It might be abstract, realist or minimalist, or contain lots of words. At other times, I make a map that is part of a growing collection that I’m creating for my own personal atlas, charting my life. Both are centred on the creative practices of daily, mindful art making and writing.

The alchemy of story telling with maps

Regardless of whether the map is real or make believe, every map tells a story. I find myself making up a story about the fantasy maps - thinking about a title and a narrative. For my personal maps, the narrative is almost always embedded into the design and is the basis of the story.

A world of stories present themselves to me - both wildly fictional and deeply personal. I’m building two worlds - one where I can escape the limitations of real life representations, time and geography and explore however I want to. And another where making maps helps me make sense of my experience of the world, of myself and my life.

I love the idea that the process of combining visual maps and the narrative could be a process of alchemy - something new is made from the separate components, which transforms how I see and understand myself in the world.

The journeys

Here’s the nitty gritty.

I’m embarking on three new journeys here: two are exploratory. The third is more about the small details of my life. I’d like to invite you to be an integral part of all three.

• Journey One: The make believe road trip

• Journey Two: The visual memoir / personal atlas

• Journey Three: Adornments

The make believe road trip

I invite you to dive into this fictional, fantasy road trip with me, which will centre around a quest to find a key. to what, we do not know.

The stories will be initially limited to 10 maps (who knows, what we find may spark another season of stories!), one new story a week for at least 10 weeks. Some of those stories may be written by guest writers.

Choose the direction for some of the stories and help me map the broader canvas of the fictional world as we go along. To that end, I’ve created a blank map of a fictional world without names, features or borders. Perhaps you’d like to map our road trip as we go along. You can download the map here.

** But first, you can start by helping me name this journey

The poll below presents five options (you can also add your own ideas for names in the comments). The poll will be live for 3 days (until until Monday 18th) and then I’ll do a second round to narrow down the top two choices for you to vote on!

All stories will be free to all subscribers to read, whilst paid subscribers will have the opportunity to shape and influence the direction this journey takes.

The Visual Memoir / Personal Atlas

I haven’t decided what this journey will be called yet - maybe it will become clearer as we move forward. For now, it is simply Journey Two. This reflects the unknow elements of this journey. I do not know what the atlas will look like, what maps it will contain or how long it will take for us to build it. All I know is that it will be “a thing”. For this journey I invite you to choose options for what to map and what I add to my personal atlas. At times, the journey may be confusing and vague, at other times it will be clearly lit and crystal clear. Either way, let’s do it together.

The invitation here is to be intimately involved in how I create my visual memoir. I anticipate it will be a journey of discovery. This journey is more personal to me and will be mostly behind a paywall. Some of the maps and stories will be shared to free subscribers from time to time. This journey too may involve guest writers and mappers.

As a way of getting into the idea of mapping our lives, I invite you download this free fun zine-based freebie. Full details of how to use it are in the download.

Mapambo

Despite all this talk of maps, I live in the real world! The way that I document that living is unique to me. I tell stories. I map my experiences. I capture the moments I connect with. The details I photograph supplement my personal atlas, they provide glimpses into the moments, events and places that I map.

My maps are made using paper and art materials. The photographs are made by noticing and paying attention to the thousands of small details of my life every day. Just as the mapmakers of old used to add embellishments around the edges of their maps, I like to think of the photos as “adornments” to my atlas.

I’ve chosen the name Mapambo¹ for this journey to reflect my African heritage (although my roots are not in East Africa where they speak Swahili!) and all letters will be available to all subscribers.

When will the journeys begin?

All will start next week 19th September 2023:

• Journey 1 on the 19th

• Journey 2 on the 22nd

• Journey 3 on the 23rd

Details of how we work together as a collective will be in each letter when it arrives in your inbox.

My invitations to you

There are many journeys you could be part of here. I’d really love for you to be part of all of them, but there is an option for you to choose which one(s) you’d like to engage with. I’ll share this in my next letter.

Here’s a summary of actions in this post:

• Paid subscribers will decide as a collective how the maps fit together and what stories I write - we chart the terrain together.

• Please vote in the poll above to come up with a name for Journey One

• Download both freebies

  • Journey One fantasy road trip map

  • Journey Two zine activity

• The About page has a summarised version of each journey and what is on offer

• And finally, please leave me a comment or restack! Tell me which journey you’re more interested in and why, and whether you are as much of a cartophile as I am!!

PS: If you know of other Curious Cartophiles, then please share this letter with them. I also have a special group subscription price, where each person gets 10% off forever!

Read Part One below if you missed it.

1. Mapambo means “decorations” in Swahili.