The Radical Promise of Toponymy

'Toponymy is a political act. It is political regardless of who does the naming, or what processes they employ: naming a place gives it a particular meaning, with an official status that supersedes all other informal, vernacular understandings of the place'. This is sociologist Meghan Tinsley's Foreword to Collaborative Toponymy, an artwork and reference guide consisting of the entire compendium of street names for a new garden village to be built in Essex. The project was created in response to an open call for a public art commission in 2021. Over 300 street names were co-created, representing an ethical and diverse body of research describing the territory via its demographics, histories and ecologies.