When you look at a map of the City of Toronto, it appears straightforward and structured: a network of streets, blocks, and right-angle turns laid out in a familiar grid, but how do people actually experience the city? 

Trent University Ph.D. candidate Lisa Ditschun found that individual experiences of Toronto are often structured by far more than streets and neighbourhood boundaries. Through a unique research project that combines urban studies, Indigenous-informed methodologies, and textile art, Lisa has created a series of nine large-scale textile cartographies that map Toronto through memory, belonging, relationships, and lived experience. 

"One of the things that surprised me was that only one participant described Toronto through the city's familiar street grid," said Lisa. "Everyone else described it through relationships, experiences, and connections to people and place. They were all talking about Toronto's downtown core, but it was like everyone was mapping a different city because they described it through relation." 

Her work, A Translucent City: Collective Memories of the Future, is now on display at Urbanspace Gallery in Toronto and will form part of this year's Nuit Blanche exhibit. 

Between Public Policy and Personal Experience

Lisa, a student in Trent's Interdisciplinary Social Research (IDSR) Ph.D. program, originally set out to examine how policies governing public spaces influence people's experiences of the city. 

Her research focused on shared urban spaces such as streets, parks, libraries, and other public places where questions of access, use, and belonging are regularly negotiated. Influenced by Indigenous Studies and Indigenous approaches to relationship-building and stewardship, she sought to understand whether different ways of thinking about shared resources might offer new approaches to urban governance. 

Through a series of in-depth research interviews and a Sharing Circle involving nine participants from Toronto, Lisa found herself moving beyond policy frameworks and into deeper conversations about what it actually feels like to live in the city. 

"As researchers and policymakers, we often try to understand cities through systems, regulations, and infrastructure," said Lisa. "What emerged from these conversations was that people's experiences are deeply relational. The ways people navigate a city are shaped by feelings of safety, exclusion, memory, and belonging. Those lived experiences don't necessarily follow the lines on a map." 

Participants shared stories about identity, racism, and oppression, as well as connection, community, and care. While policy remained part of the conversation, participants repeatedly returned to a more fundamental question: how they experienced the city in their day-to-day lives. 

"The participants consistently brought us back to human experience," said Lisa. "Rather than asking what policy should do, they were sharing where they felt welcome, where they felt constrained, and what relationships connected them to particular places. That realization has changed the direction of the research." 

Turning Conversations into Cartographies

To process the conversations, Lisa drew on her background in fine arts, architecture, and psychology. 

After listening to each interview, she created a textile artwork based on the participant's experiences, movements, and relationships within the city. Lisa used thread to go over routes they described, with all connections shown in different ways through stitching density and pattern. Knots or circles marked points of connection with people or places. She used overlapping stitches for areas they visited frequently or stayed, and loose or no stitching for places they passed through without stopping. The result was a collection of nine textile cartographies that blend social sciences and humanities studies with artistic expression.  

When Lisa brought the completed textile cartographies back to participants during a Sharing Circle, almost immediately people recognized their own stories reflected in the work. 

"They knew which piece was theirs right away," said Lisa. "They could see their experiences, their movements, and their relationships represented there. One participant became emotional when they saw their cartography. Participants felt that someone took the time and care to truly understand how they experience the city and what matters to them. That's what I hope people take away from this work, and what could influence the development of policy in the future." 

An Exhibition Advancing the Research

Lisa’s project reflects the interdisciplinary approach that defines Trent's IDSR program, bringing together research, community engagement, Indigenous ways of knowing and creative practice. 

"Lisa's work demonstrates how rigorous interdisciplinary research can be transformed into creative expressions of discovery," said Dr. Blair Niblett, associate professor in Trent’s School of Education and one of Lisa's Ph.D. supervisors. "By bringing together scholarly inquiry, Indigenous-informed methodologies, and artistic practice, she has created new ways for people to engage with research findings while centering the lived experiences of community members."  

The project continues to evolve beyond the dissertation itself. The exhibition at Urbanspace Gallery includes opportunities for gallery visitors to create their own mini cartographies. Their contributions will become part of the installation and inform Lisa's ongoing research. 

For Lisa, public engagement is an essential part of the work. 

"I wanted to create something that could exist beyond academia," she said. "The artwork creates another way into the conversation, one that invites participation and reflection." 

The exhibition also features a 40-minute art film that explores the sensory and emotional dimensions of moving through Toronto's urban landscape. 

A Translucent City will be on display at Urbanspace until December 31.   

Learn more about Trent's Interdisciplinary Social Research Ph.D. program.