gainesville shortcuts: hand drawn map signs 2004

University of Florida Gallery, Gainesville, Florida, 2004, Curated by M. Lennon and S. Miller

Residents of Gainesville were asked to draw maps of their favorite shortcuts in the town. The resultant maps were then made into street signs. The vernacular unofficial information regarding these routes was re presented in the official language of formal city street signs.

The project stemmed from an interest in how maps behave as editorial documents and how unofficial or undocumented accounts of urban space reveal localised details which have universal resonance.

The maps themselves were revealing about many aspects of Gainesville. Shortcuts depicted frequently referenced car journeys, one map even acted as a momento mori to the pedestrian victim of a road accident killed at a junction frequently passed by the map's author. Another showed an alligator crossing a road near the towns 'Publix' supermarket.