Memory Map

March 2026 First Friday Art Map

This month I am thinking about how we create mental models of the spaces we navigate through. Last week, I tasked myself and willing friends, colleagues, and students to draw what they could of Knoxville from memory only—without referencing a map. The below zoomable composite¹ is a collection of our mental models, scaled and placed as correctly as possible against a geographically accurate aerial map. Two-finger pinch to zoom in and alter distance between layers, and then scroll to move through them.

Please press this button to explore the full 25-layered-map format before reading on. If your browser has trouble, try reloading and switching browsers, or on a computer. Hopefully it works for you!:

I wondered: Does a map have to be geographically accurate to be useful? How similar or different are our working mental models of our city? Are we more accurate together, or would our errors compound and reinforce inaccuracies? Does accuracy matter as much as legibility? How would maps vary across age groups? Across commuting style?

I found that seeing my friends’ maps was a delightful window into their minds; though very few were objectively accurate, all were subjectively representational. To me, the process of memory mapping felt like trying to see in the dark- squinting to make out shapes in the dim of past experiences. You’d perhaps think that because mapping Knoxville is, like, what I DO, that this would be a piece of cake for me. I found it just as hard as everyone else— and everyone underscored how challenging it was². I dare you to try it, and add yours to a binder of memory maps at The Emporium display spot, next to the tablet where you can zoom and scroll to your heart’s content.

Thank you so very much to my Memory Map Contributors, in layer order³ : Landin Eldridge, Karly Jean Kainz, Arthur Collins, Lucy Bolin, Faye Nixon, Chelsie B. Nunn, Ash Sunbird Dawn, Steven Friedlander, Lauren Adams, Sandy Lanzoni, Kit Buckley, Kyle Cottier, Risa Hricovsky, Lynne Marinelli Ghenov, Bella Thomas-Wilson, Ashton Ludden, Kelsie Conley, Julie Lohnes, Ezra Purdy, Sarah McFalls, Sarah Heizenroth, Kelly Sullivan, Cara Pfennigwerth, Elysia Mann. ⁴

Thank you also to my brother, Bennett, for creating this incredible specific host site for this map. So fun to work with you and see this come to life the way it did.

Here are some snapshots... but please don’t just look at these; THE map is the above link:)

Here is what you will find at The Emporium to explore the layers for yourself, and add a drawn map of your own to the binder.

And here’s a video tour:

THE FIRST FRIDAY LIST — March 6

• The Emporium (5-9)
  + time. place. ~ curated by Ashley Layendecker of Red Arrow Gallery

  + E Pluribus Unum Juried Exhibition ~ various artists

  + Patron Saints of Rock, Revival ~ Robert Felker

  + Traditional Stained Glass with a Modern Twist ~ Laura Goff Parham

  + Soft Wounds, Loud Colors: Fragments of a Lived Experience ~ Liz Lee
  + Memory Map: March 2026 First Friday ~ Lauren Farkas & Friends

• Gallery 1010 (5-9) Global Dialogue ~ by UTK MFA First Year Students

• UTK Downton Gallery (5-9) Radical Chimeras ~ Rob Mazurek

• Arrowmont Gallery (5-9) 100 and Under: Planted! ~ a group of local, regional, and Arrowmont-connected artists

• Able Trade (5:30-8:30) Doom and Gloom ~ Sam Chumley

• Dogwood Arts (5-8) Resonance⁵ ~ Curtis Glover

• Red Gallery (5-8) Naturalists of Late Capitalism ~ John Allen

• The Birdhouse (5-9) Forever Dream ~ Jaden Michael Lynch AND⁶ Mac Simpson

• Mighty Mud (6-9) Flawed Perspective ~ by Josh Trent

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contributions from Kelsie, Karly, Lynne, Kyle, Kit, Faye, Kelly, Chelsie, and Landin

I hope this gets you thinking about how you relate to the space you move through. And maybe something about how we are all having our own subjective experiences etc etc…

Cheers, spatial beings,

—Farkas

Do you know of a show coming up? Pretty-please message me details here! Thank you!

First Friday maps will always be free. Subscribe and click “None/free” to receive them each month. Other art maps for non-First Friday shows go out to paid subscribers. To chip in $1/month, click the “Annual” option.

This month in particular, I sprung for a used iPad to display the piece in the gallery, which was a good reminder about the expenses of experimenting with new materials. Thank you for your support <3

Share this with someone you want to be in the loop with you:)

1. After I determined that Canva was not cutting it (no deep zoom!), my creative tech-wizard brother, Bennett Farkas created this website platform and coached me through using it…we are both baffled that it worked:) Thank you, Bennett, for all your time on this this week.

2. I kept thinking about it with the analogy of a handstand. If I practiced doing a handstand one time a month against a wall, I probably wouldn’t be THAT much better after 3 years at doing one away from a wall. I haven’t really needed to use the recall. I have enjoyed riding around since working on this, though, and trying to stitch roads together in my mind, trying to understand the logic of the city.

3. Mine is the top layer, there is no objective layer included.

4. And thank you to Karyn Adams, Riley Douglas, and Hayden Deakins for your contributions, which are also in the book at the gallery.

5. I didn’t have the title when I made the map—oops!

6. I accidentally left off Mac’s name from the map— didn’t realize it was a two person show till too late— sorry!