Downtown Chi

Georgia Reese

For this week’s walk I walked with my mom and her boyfriend around downtown Chicago, specifically in Millennium Park. I had already figured that for my field guide for the final project that I want to make a sort of collage of my favorite and most frequented places that I have been to in Chicago so far. So during this walk I made sure to take a lot of pictures to print later and collect some items that can be cut up and made into a collage. I collected many pictures, a postcard, and a map of the Art Institute of Chicago. I have decided that the story that I want to tell of my “discovering Chicago” is how I have turned from someone who was too scared to leave my mom’s side when I first got to Chicago, to now being the person that is leading my mom all around the city. I want to elaborate on how this class and my experiences outside of this class have led me to discover who I am.

As I was taking my walk for this week, I felt different. I was going to all of these places that I have been to many times, but this time I was the guide and I got to be very independent. Taking pictures of all of my new favorite places and people and knowing that this is my home now was an experience that I have chosen to elaborate on for my final project.

How does the Folded Map Project visualize segregation?

The Folded Map Project visualizes segregation by showing the different types of schools, businesses, and social characteristics in different Chicago neighborhoods. It shows how the different efforts and money put into the businesses and schools in Chicago segregate people. With schools that have less financial assistance, the teaching will not be as good as other schools so the test scores will be worse, and by default the job and education opportunities will not be as good. It is an inescapable system that it placed to segregate people, mainly people of color. The Folded Map Project helps to truly envision this system of segregation, it provides a real physical manifestation of the system that has been in place for hundreds of years and will continue to be in place unless protested and truly changed.