1. 1 m Mapped
2

2. This project was inspired by a story which my
cousin told me:
‘There was this very curious woman in England who
decided that she would go on an adventure in her
back garden, as she had no money to go on holiday
to an exotic location. She had a feeling that there
were hidden gems to be found there – if only one
looked hard enough. So she decided that she would
study 1m2 of grass, in the greatest of detail.
After many years of looking intently at this tiny
patch, the lady discovered 100’s of previously
unknown insects and types of grasses. It just goes
to show that you don’t need to go very far to make
amazing discoveries.’
So I decided to map 1m2 of my favourite coffee shop
– Simon’s Place.

3. I arrived with a bag of pens, graph paper, a set
square, a scale ruler, a measuring tape, a camera
and notebook ready to make my discoveries. I wanted
to record everything in the 1m2 that extended
above and below me. I tried to imagine that I had
gotten a square shaped apple corer and gouged out
this piece of the city for intense examination.
I measured, surveyed, listened photographed and
recorded everything that I could. It overwhelmed
me. There was so much happening and everything
changed constantly from one second to the next. My
mind went fuzzy as I tried to figure out how even
a tiny piece of reality could every be recorded
properly.

4. I tried to focus myself again – but again my
mind went blurry with the intensity of information
around me.

5. Then a lady sat down beside me. We got chatting.
It turned out that she loved ‘Simon’s Place’ too.
I wondered if I should record our. She was not
within the 1m2 in a physical sense, but her words
and stories were , as they floated through the
air.

6. I decided that I would try and record things in
theme....starting with what I heard. I tried to
map this to where I thought the sound originated
from.....

7. I recorded what I saw, second by second....

8. I recorded the materials around me....

9. And the things that I sensed were present, but
that I could not see....

10. In the end, I concluded that it is very difficult
to map everything, even in only 1 m2
And
if in the future someone did manage to map re-
ality, in four dimensions, in all its detail,
I don’t know where they would have the space to
store all the data.

11. The End