Fringe- Places that Verb Your World

5 Pieces by R. Justin Stewart by R. Justin Stewart • 03.07.2011

Fringe Magazine

Fringe Magazine, in honor of the launch  of Issue No. 26:  Maps (Spring '11), is asking readers to contribute to a piece of collaborative artwork, in the form of a Google Map:


For our anniversary Maps issue, Fringe is making an interactive map of Places That Verb Your World and we need help. Send a little something — a photograph, a verse, a few sentences about a geographical location that is meaningful to you - to FringeTheMagazine@gmail.com, or post your submissions on our Facebook page.

Quite a  few entries are up already. Viewed using the Google Maps plug-in, you can fly from place to place and view these places-from-the-heart from the landscape level or street level, accompanied by verse, a short story, or a photo.

This Place Matters

This Place Matters is a program through the National Trust for Historic Preservation to create a central clearinghouse for places that matter to individual people.  You can register at the site, upload photos of your special place to a group Flickr pool, geotag them in a community Google Map, and dowload a "This Place Matters sign to affix to your place.

The idea is similar to the Orion Magazine's The Place Where You Live web feature (also featured in the print magazine) which I have proudly written  for.

The Wilderness Downtown

I am new to Arcade Fire, but I see there is something I have been missing here.  Their sound is different yet so familiar- definitely an early '80's vibe is going on. I have not yet read up on them extensiveky so perhaps the music journalists will help me put words to it...in any case I am LOVING their new album, The Suburbs, and  this new interactive video, which asks for your childhood address and incorporates your childhood street into the montage, definitely addresses PLACE!.
The Wilderness Downtown

A Ten Year Vision for Detroit

The Freep's Sunday Editorial section featured a spread summarizing various items coming  together to deliver a  "smaller, smarter, greener" city in ten years. Mitch Albom's poetic piece begins:

"In my Detroit, a decade from now, there are no blocks with one burned-out house. Those eyesores have been leveled. Grass and trees have taken their place."

I would have liked to see a few additions to Albom's column and to the featured map (which should not have yellowed out the suburbs and Windsor, Canada.

I would add the following:

In my Detroit, the hundreds of autonomous suburban municipalities and school districts have merged services to become more efficient and effective.


In my Detroit, the City and every suburb have adopted and implemented sustainability plans which outline how they are going to reduce greenhouse gases, conserve water, create and preserve green infrastructure, and reduce solid waste.

In my Detroit, Belle Isle has been restored to its former grandeur, and the Belle Isle Aquarium has been re-opened and expanded, featuring top-notch exhibits and programs about the Great Lakes and the Detroit River.


In my Detroit, the City and suburbs collaborate and cooperate because they know it is in their mutual best interest to do so.

MORE HERE

Mapping Place

• When trying to connect with place, sometimes it helps to have a map. Technology-based projects are cropping up to create guides and maps to assist people in discovering and connecting to place. Here are a few of my favorites:

1. Geocaching

Geocaching is essentially treasure hunting using a GPS (Global Positioning System) . Essentially, people hide "caches", which are some type of container containing, at minimum, a logbook, and likely some trinkets and treats for taking or trading. The geographic coordinates of the caches are registered with geocaching.com, along with hints, photos and other optional information, and people can record their visits both in a logbook within the physical cache and on the website.

I had been wanting to try it for years but lacked a GPS system. When I bought an iPhone late in 2009, I suddenly had the capability- the iPhone has a GPS system and you can download a geocaching app that identifies and navigates to geocaches based on your location. It is loads of fun, especially with my 4-year old (that is us in the photo above, after a find).

I love this game. For one, it builds community- albeit a strange and quirky one, as I am still learning. There is an entire community of geocachers out there, complete with a language I don't yet understand (non-geocachers are "muggles" a la Harry Potter). And unlike many technologies, this one gets people outside instead of discouraging them from leaving the house.

I love it because it is a wonderful, lighthearted way to connect people with place, and provides opportunities for people to discover new localities in their own areas. Caches can be hidden nearly anywhere, and creative uses of geocaching can highlight and promote a community asset or resource. (Here's a great example).

2. Green Map

The Green Map concept has been around for 15 years or so but recently was rebuilt using Google Maps as a platform. Green Map supports locally-created and locally-managed online mapping projects that identify sustainability resources, using universal iconography. Users can suggest sites and provide a location via Google Maps.

According to their website:

Over 400 unique, vibrant Green Maps have published to date, and hundreds more have been created in classrooms and workshops by youth and adults. Both the mapmaking process and the resulting Green Maps have tangible effects that:

Strengthen local-global sustainability networks

Expand the demand for healthier, greener choices

Help successful initiatives spread to even more communities

The website for Metro Detroit is relatively new, and still seems a bit buggy and does not have many sites yet. To see the full potential, visit the NYC map. I have hope for this technology, though I think a lot of local administrative details, especially data custody and management issues, will need to be sorted out before it becomes truly useful.

A mobile web app is available that uses your current location to identify green assets in your vicinity.

3. Atlas Obscura

Atlas Obscura is billed as "a compendium of the world's wonders, curiosities, and esoterica." Users can submit esoterica (via Google Map) under a variety of categories (you can select more than one) such as "Incredible Ruins", "Disaster Areas", "Mystery Spots and Gravity Hills", etc.

Detroit entries thus far include The Heidelburg Project (Outsider Architecture), Detroit Salt Mine (Natural Wonder), Edison's Last Breath at the Henry Ford Museum (Memento Mori), Hamtramck Disneyland (Eccentric Homes).

It should be mentioned that each of these projects relies on Google Maps technology as a platform. I think the building and dissemination of Google Maps to the public for free is a major contribution to society, one that will continue to reap benefits so far as helping people communicate about and connect to place.