COLLABORATIVE TOPONYMY

Collaborative Toponymy MMXXII is a project consisting in the co-creation of over 300 street names for a new government garden village to be built in Essex.  

The project evolves from a 2021 public art commission where artists were invited to respond to the ‘empty’ site designated for the development. Located south of Brentwood, the site is currently agricultural land, ancient woodlands and a family golf course.

Motivated by the current debates questioning the identity of public places and the potentially contentious role of statues in celebrating histories of oppression, I proposed to co-create with local communities the entire compendium of the street names of the future garden village. In this way the place will reflect an actual and diverse legacy designed to stay.

I approached this resaerch project along three lines of enquiry: histories, ecologies and community values. I delivered a searcheable database of over 300 street names, where each term is coded with eight topic tags.

The reference guide Collaborative Toponymy, (detail below), includes a text by sociologist Megan Tinsley from the University of Manchester. The guide will feature in the British Library, UCL collections and all major central UK libraries and is available online, from the artist and at Camden Arts Centre, London.

The project is also being activated through music, print and participatory collaborations. In 2023 the project will be featured in a public art anthology and Antennae Journal.