As part of her 2007 Out of Site festival of live art, artist and curator Michelle Browne asked me to make a piece that connected with a city centre location in Dublin.

Having just moved into the Liberties area of the city, and not knowing it well at all, it made sense to me to create something that would improve my own knowledge of – and connections to – the place. I’m always interested in creating situations where people see places they know well in a different way. Also, I enjoy situations that allow people to talk to each other in ways they may not normally.

I spent an afternoon on a wide pavement at a busy intersection asking people to help me draw a map of the area in chalk. This was before smartphones were ubiquitous, and people had to direct me from their memory of the street layout.

A few months later, a friend who had just moved to the Nørrebro area of Copenhagen ‘franchised’ the idea and did it on a pavement near her new apartment.

Photos by Nicola Morris and Fiona Carr