Abstract

Activators and the general public view commercial alleyways as “non-places”—they seem to lack a sense of history, relationality, and identity, and therefore a sense of place (Augé, 1995). In this study, I use a phenomenological understanding of place to explore the potential place-ness of the Bishop/Mackay alleyway, a commercial backstreet in downtown Montreal. I use the same concept to map personal stories associated with this alleyway and to better understand the deeper sense of place this particular alley holds. Using a research-creation process, ethnographic methods, inductive visualisation, and deep mapping lead me to my Alley Atlas. Through it, I argue that the alley’s meaning consists of its ability to house shadow-like expressions of the human condition, and connect people and places. Because of its non-judgemental quality, this alley creates a safe haven for a myriad of taboo behaviours, like crying, having a mental breakdown, smoking, using drugs, drinking alcohol, and spray-painting. Secondly, I argue that inductive visualisation and deep mapping are compelling and complementary approaches to the visualisation of meaning in an alleyway; while the former functions as a method of extracting meaning and visualising it, the latter creates a container within which to move from superficial to deeper representations and understandings of place, housing both place and non-place qualities. Finally, I arrive at the conclusion that, while the alley’s identity depends on who is looking at it and how, viewers of my Alley Atlas might see that it is inherently a place.