What can maps become?
Part of this pause has been returning to ideas I once tucked away — fragments that lingered in my notes and still hold possibility.
One resurfaced today after I read this evocative piece on how AI-driven, multi-layered maps might change how we understand power, culture, and the choices future generations inherit: https://lnkd.in/dwn_GRHA
It reminded me of my own love for maps and how that began.
Growing up, my father loved to drive. Many of our childhood holidays were road trips. Even in the city, we’d sometimes go on ‘car picnics’ — just so he could drive and we could eat chips! Whether inter-state or intra-city, the one thing that remained constant were — maps!
My brother or I would play co-pilot, tracing routes and noting the car’s meter readings at every milestone. In the city, the Eicher Delhi City Map Book was always on the passenger seat. (If you don’t know it, here’s why it was so special: https://lnkd.in/dB5Z28CR)
Apart from giving me direction, my fascination with maps deepened over time. I began marking my favourite places on hand-drawn maps, sketching routes and directions for visitors, and noticing the layers of history the city was built upon. Being introduced to mental maps added yet another layer — maps drawn from memory and history, with no physical footprint, yet deeply embedded in place.
Maps soon crossed paths with my love for stories and oral histories. I began imagining how we might use maps to surface personal narratives tied to a place — so visitors could experience a street through myths, memories, and moments that don’t show up on a tourist guide. Out of this came an idea I once called WhisperWalk.
It feels like a good time to reimagine WhisperWalk now.
To open a map on your phone and, instead of directions, discover stories: layered, lived, whispered into the place you stand.
And maybe these story-maps could do more than help us remember. Maybe they could help us reimagine — not just what our cities are, but what they could become: spaces shaped by the people who live and walk them.
If this sparks something, if you’d like to collaborate, contribute, or just think along — I’d love to hear from you.
