Here There Be Dragons

Here There Be Dragons is an audio project inspired by the ways in which fear, identity and security lead us to make real time mental maps of the city and strategize for safety. For season one of the series, I focused on native New Yorkers and how their sense of security in the city shifts with reputations of neighborhoods and their understanding of and comfort with their own identities. For season two I'm focusing on Paris natives.

[heretherebedragonspodcast]

Security + Identity, Here There Be Dragons 

[heretherebedragonspodcast]

Here There Be Dragons

Listen to Here There Be Dragons by Jess Myers #np on #SoundCloud

Here There Be Dragons season 1, a podcast exploring safety and identity in cities. I spoke to seven New York natives from all over the city about their stories and experiences.

[heretherebedragonspodcast]

Hello & Welcome

The title of the project comes from the medieval mapping practice of drawing dragons and sea monsters over unexplored or dangerous territories. Although we now find these maps to be historic figments of a medieval imagination, many of us carry these same maps around in our heads, negotiating our identities through space, pre-emptively planning escapes and defenses should the city square off against us.

The purpose of Here There Be Dragons is to show through people’s lived experiences the ways that urban space, memory, rumor, and identity shape the ways that people relate to their native cities. It emphasizes that urbanism is more than how our bodies move through city but it is also how the city moves through us.