Stephanie Rowden (audio) and Hannah Smotrich (map)

a place has its stories
2007

As newcomers to the block we were naturally curious about its past and present. We were interested in finding what we couldn’t possibly know as outsiders. What can’t we see? What would you like us to imagine? What should we know?

In search of stories, Stephanie took a series of strolls (literal and figurative) with a handful of people who have known this block in different ways, at different times. With each walk, the life history of the block became more and more alive and present. Hannah joined in on some of these walks, gathering visual details as the stories unfolded.

From her recorded strolls, Stephanie wove together some of the memories, insights, wishes and chance encounters she found as she listened her way around the block. From the photographic fragments she collected, Hannah created an impressionistic map — a means of connecting the stories back to the block.

Acknowledgments and Thank Yous:
For sharing their time, knowledge and voices: Paul Ganson, Pat Dorn, Scott Hocking, Jiam Des Jardins, Sister Mary Watson, Margaret Sinclair, Willard Farmer, and Carolyn Brooks.
For recording assistance: Kyle Norris (inside St Pats Senior Center) and Maria Howes (street sounds).
For helping to realize this project: Nick Sousanis, Stephanie Lucas, Laura Hunt, and the staff at St. Patrick’s Senior Center.






Stephanie Rowden is an installation artist with a special interest in sound. Her audio installations and sculptures been presented in a variety of settings including a portrait gallery in the Brooklyn Museum, the vaults under the Brooklyn Bridge, a public library outside of Chicago as well as a number of galleries in New York and Chicago. Recent projects include sound design for a collaborative performance project with the writer Anne Carson and an audio documentary about friendship and aging.

Rowden has received grants and fellowships from ArtServe Michigan / the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, the Mid-Atlantic Arts Alliance / National Endowment for the Arts, ArtMatters, Inc., the University of Michigan Arts of Citizenship program and Artists Space of New York. She has been an artist-in-residence at the MacDowell Colony and the Ragdale Foundation. Rowden holds a BA in Studio Art from Brown University and an MA in Community Counseling from Eastern Michigan University. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the School of Art & Design at the University of Michigan.

Her work is represented by Littlejohn Contemporary in New York City.