Deep Mapping Middletown

Deep Mapping Middletown is a platform for intensive, spatially-driven investigations of Muncie, Indiana, that employ techniques derived from literary study, history, anthropology, geography and art. Its ultimate aim is to produce a “detailed multimedia depiction of a place” that capitalizes on the extensive archive created by the century of social research focused on Muncie as a result of its role in Robert and Helen Lynd’s seminal Middletown studies and their many successors. In 2022, the Center for Middletown Studies and the Institute for Digital Intermedia Art drew together an international group of scholars, librarians, and digital designers to develop a plan for the project.  To date the project has received support from the George and Frances Ball Foundation and Ball State’s Office of Sponsored Projects.  The project leaders (Connolly and Fillwalk) are currently seeking additional funding to develop individual models for the project.