In a series of thirteen renaming events between Spring 2006 – Summer 2007, the Institute for Infinitely Small Things collected over 300 new names for public spaces in Cambridge, MA. A collaboration with Hedberg Maps and a senior graphic design class at the Art Institute of Boston in Spring 2008, the Institute produced and published the map of The City Formerly Known As Cambridge. The published map contains only the new names of Cambridge public spaces, along with the reasons why people renamed particular places.
Renaming reasons were various. A young man named several places after his friends because “they deserve it”. A five-year-old renamed Dana Park to Monkey Park because “I like monkeys”. People renamed neighborhoods to recall past histories (i.e. renaming Area 4 to Candyland to commemorate Necco and Squirrel candy companies). One woman renamed Harvard Street to Ann Racliffe street because, she said, Radcliffe gave all the money to found Harvard and never got any street out of it.
Finally, the Institute attached money to the renaming process. The first person to rename something got to do it for free. After that, the price went up by a quarter, a token amount of money to try to hint at the correlations between public memory and money.
