Onondaga Lake: Finding a Restorative Center in Digital Space

FAIN: HD-228990-15

Syracuse University (Syracuse, NY 13244-0001)
Susan Rachel May (Project Director: September 2014 to June 2019)
Jane Read (Co Project Director: March 2015 to June 2019)
Philip P. Arnold (Co Project Director: March 2015 to June 2019)

The development of a prototype digital map that seeks to combine scientific perspectives with non-Cartesian perspectives (such as those of the indigenous population) that don't map easily to spatial coordinates, focusing on the historical, cultural, and economic significance of Onondaga Lake near Syracuse, NY.

Onondaga Lake is small and obscure, but its story touches on indigenous wars and the Great Law of Peace, the writing of the US Constitution, the development of American industry and transportation, legal and technical innovations for environmental recovery, and creative urban planning. We propose a prototype digital atlas of the lake that combines the idea of space as a spiritual center in indigenous and local knowledge with the more decentered idea of space inherent in digital mapping. Our project will employ existing software and experiment with a variety of storytelling and data collection methods, methods of representing "blank spaces" on the map due to environmental change or privacy issues, and ways to use the map to foster ongoing dialogue about contested space and contested terms, such as "restoration." We will apply research about the compatibility of traditional, local, specialized, and scientific knowledge to create a tool for respectful communication.