When I first began this project, I had no idea how I was going to go about
it. I was handed a folder full of papers written at the Coe College
Writing Center's Fall retreat in Spring Green, Wisconsin. Some papers were
yellow, some printed neatly, some with tattered edges torn from a
notebook. I looked at them and saw a pile of paper daring me to classify
its individual members. I imagined that the papers would defy description,
since the assignment had simply been to write 100 words about our thoughts
on the word "map."
Reading the papers, it became clear that I wouldn't have to describe them
in any way. I had nothing to add to the contribution of each author; I
wanted each work to be its own separate entity. I began to realize that
more important than anything I could say about the papers was the way in
which I could arrange the papers. There were remarkable similarities
between papers that created broad categories and transitions between those
categories. Unfortunately, the two-dimensional nature of the printed text
limits me to making rather linear transitions, but still, I sought an
order that suggested a natural transition from the first entry to the
last. It is the order of the papers which is most important, the way in
which each writer, through a stand-alone paper, created a small part of a
larger entity.
Will Smith
3-16-1999
