It is not a science book, it is not a tourist guide, it is an art project! Map Your Memories is an ongoing collaborative project that asks people to fill in an extremely schematic map of a city with what is meaningful for them. The project was created by Becky Cooper in 2007, featured in the Wall Street Journal and Time Out New Yorker, and so far expands to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Portland, Maine. The story behind the project The writing of the book starts at 231st Street in Bronx with the author armed with hundreds of blank maps of the city and ends at the southern tip of the island looking towards the Statue of Liberty. During the journey, Becky Cooper met police officers, homeless people, fashion models, all kind of people that have lived their lives in Manhattan.
Front Cover
Outline of the book After filling in the maps, participants had to mail it back and soon Becky’s mail box started to get full; improvised personal maps with narratives and revelations about love, childhood memories, hopes and emotional confessions. Thus, it is not a surprise to discover, that despite of the restricted language of mapping, this book is highly emotional. One airplane catches the eye with a sign next to it “and now he is gone”. A whole love story comes alive. Other maps evoke laughter like the one titled “My lost gloves” and you see a map dotted with gloves. If you are not from Manhattan, you may need to research more about what is shown on a particular map, but at the same time, other maps are as clear as possible. For example, one has a purely utilitarian use showing Manhattan in five different colors according to the desire to visit them. Most precious feature of the book is that no matter how many times you open it, it will offer you something different from before. As it is in Manhattan itself. It shows a great variety that lingers within the grid of streets and blocks. As one of the mapmakers defines the city, it is “Disneyland for old folks”. Get it Here! 
A sample of the inside print.
Personalized maps.
