Project Statement

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1. Take a short online survey

Project Statement

Prostitution in the Bronx is often seen through the lens of Brent Owens' documentary series "Hookers at the Point." The films portray prostitutes working in the streets of the Hunts Point neighborhood. Shot only while they are working, the prostitutes are depicted as stereotypical victims in thongs and stilettos. This view is so pervasive that residents recently had the films banned from HBO (1). In reality, the Bronx is home to sex workers who do a variety of sex work (strippers, phone sex operators, escorts) and lead complex lives. They are closely intertwined with their neighborhoods and communities, excluded from and yet still contributing to the economic mainstream. From shopping in bodegas to attending college to taking children to day care, sex workers are part of the seen/unseen life in the Bronx.

“Re/working the Map” uses mapping to illuminate the physical and economic connections of sex workers to the Bronx. Our goal is to create an interactive data map that depicts sex workers' lives in a more complete way, through the places they frequent when they are not working and the contributions they make to the "legitimate" economy of the Bronx. The data will be gathered from sex workers, both online and via outreach workers, in collaboration with trusted community-based list-servs and organizations. Workers who come from a variety of backgrounds will be interviewed to represent a range of experiences: strippers, phone sex operators, prostitutes, and street-based workers -- sex workers of all kinds who have some physical connection to the Bronx.

The data will be mapped using a combination of Google Maps API and Google Earth. This will be an ongoing process, and sex workers will have the option of adding additional data to the map during exhibitions. The map will be available for anyone to view online, and gallery installations will include a large-scale version of the map. We will also include residual materials left over from the data gathering: maps, photographs, notes, sketches.

Sex workers have historically been the objects of inquiry for a range of public health, urban planning and zoning, and criminal/legal study -- in fact, the modern practice of public health is deeply rooted in efforts to contain "mental hygiene" and infectious disease among prostitutes in cities. Sex workers stand to gain little from these modes of inquiry, as they are rarely the architects themselves of sociological or epidemiological studies. While engaged by researchers only as research subjects around the nature of disease, crime, and violence, sex workers are marginalized into only those facets of their experience. They are rarely asked about quality of life, positive health outcomes, what in urban planning might most benefit them and their families, or how they engage in civil society at large. As a consequence, urban studies have the effect of reifying stereotypes and stigmas against sex workers, even as those conducting these modes of research may claim they have sex workers' health and safety in consideration.

Our methodology inverts this power dynamic -- the project itself is designed as a collaboration between a sex worker and a sex worker rights' advocate. Our research instrument is framed not as a clinical or surveillance tool, but as a way to make recommendations and suggestions about one's quality of life based on what one enjoys. It positions the sex workers being queried as experts in their communities, not as "vectors of disease" or "vulnerable populations" who put communities at risk. Sex workers who take part in our data gathering may not stand to gain a significant amount from their input, but the information they offer will certainly not place them in a position of harm or increased surveillance.

There is long history of artists and activists using mapping strategies to rethink our connections to physical spaces. Recent examples include "An Atlas of Radical Cartography" (2) and Tactical Technology Collective's "Maps for Advocacy" (3). By using both physical and digital maps, “Re/working the Map” is a new media project accessible to all, including those that don’t have access to the Internet. It protects the anonymity of the sex workers as well as the viewers, and allows many people in the Bronx to experience an interactive artwork who would never make it to the gallery.

(1) http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/12/hbo-gets-the-point/

(2) http://www.an-atlas.com/

(3) http://www.tacticaltech.org/mapsforadvocacy

2. Tell us a story: 646-543-1669

3. Text us a story: 646-543-1669

4. Send us a photo: tapremap[at]gmail[dot]com

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