paul-roy

When a lock-down due to Covid-19 became imminent it became obvious that I would be one of the individuals who would be considered vulnerable and therefore would require cocooning, as I have an autoimmune disease which primarily affects my respiratory system. This came pretty much in conjunction with the initiation of the mapping project, and so we began to consider what mapping the confinements of our cocoon meant in relation to our overall situation.
And so, our home became an island in a threatening sea, and I began to consider the fears and threats of the external. I thought about the ancient maps, wherein strange uncharted areas of the planet would sometimes have the epithet “Here Be Monsters”, or even "Dragons", that unseen, undocumented threat. I thought of the multiple iterations of the zombie apocalypse genre, the idea that for me, these un-dead would now need to simply cough on me rather than bite me, they carried the fug of doom. Now this strange outside world, beyond the front gate became the realm of monsters, the threatening spectres of death.
However, as the days and weeks crept by it became possible to venture out under the cover of darkness, rain and quiet. So we were able to sneak out into a silent world, empty of normal activity, the street lights seemed dimmer, the rain quieter, the glow from homes subdued. We walked, with a sense of being unseen, rarely encountering another human, scurrying to avoid them when we did, an almost instinctive reaction, we were like nocturnal animals. This also meant that place that were inaccessible during the day, due to human activity, became viable during the night, and we had a map of a world that changed with the clock. During daylight hours, we were confined to the house and garden, whilst our night map included the majority of our village.
This experience brought a new awareness of the limitations of my world. As we live in a small village the actual limits where it is safe to walk (footpaths and streetlights) was well within a 2 kilometre radius, and so, to a certain extent, the proscribed limit became irrelevant in any real way, this also subsequently continued into the extended 5 kilometre limit, as no new potential safe walking areas were included. What actually changed was the timing of opportunities to venture out. Our map isn’t only about what space is available, but also what time. Decisions were less spontaneous, and routes were considered well in advance. We became aware of how, ultimately, your map must also contain, along with the physical accessibility and the practical distance also one of degrees of vulnerability, not just where be dragons, but also when.