The Road to Recovery- Aine Kavanagh and Jamie Crosbie

Aine Kavanagh and Jamie Crosbie are working with young men with drug addiction problems who participate in Coolmine Welcome Programme, which is situated in John's Lane West. Over the last six weeks we have been exploring identity and how it can be represented using locations and cartography. Through various activities, with media including creative writing, photography, model making and board game designing, we have investigated different ways of "mapping" identity and equating it with a locational aspect.

One of the outcomes of the programme was a board game that the group designed, which is based on the progression from a life of addiction to a life of normality. The game is situated on a map of dublin, and each space on the ‘board’ holds meaning for the group, be it negative or positive. The game has resolved itself not in a literal sense, but in several ways, including a representation on google maps and an installation piece.






This map is based on a board game designed by Coolmine Welcome Programme in 2009 while collaborating with Create. The red markers on the map represent spaces on the board game. The blue ones, a creative writing exercise, making up fictional histories for some of the Streets. The Green markers represent places of interest.


View The Road to Recovery in a larger map