Soft City, Textile Map Series, Boston

just practice_2020-2021
Cambridge, MA
Researcher, Map Maker, Textile Maker

In collaboration with Sophie Weston Chien. Supported by MIT Council for the Arts. Special thanks to Emma Werowinski, Mackinley Wang-Xu, James Brice, and Sir Sahil Mohan.

Soft City is a large-scale textile series that maps the urban fabric of Black neighborhoods in the Boston area. The tapestries map historic (redlined) and contemporary Black neighborhoods, including Roxbury, Dorchester, and East Cambridge. The information mapped tells the story of the past, present, and future of Black residents, and the ecological resilience of the neighborhoods they live in. Hard (impervious) and soft (pervious) land uses are codified using colors with overlays of Black residents and flood zones on the tapestries. The softness and materiality of tufting interrogates the traditional top-down approach to space planning and management in the city and offers new tactile ways to explore our understanding of urban space, at all ages.

Follow the project on Instagram or at just practice.