Projects

'Footpath for the People?' A Data Quilt & Companion Zine about the Appalachian Trail

Details

'Footpath for the People?' A Data Quilt & Companion Zine about the Appalachian Trail logo or decorative image

Footpath for the People? is a data quilt designed and created by Scholars’ Lab’s inaugural Virtual Artist-in-Residence Claudia Berger during the 2024-2025 academic year, with an accompanying zine explaining how to read the quilt’s data physicalization, and the research, goals, and methods used to realize the project. Berger also blogged the design process leading to the quilt at “Designing a Data Physicalization: A love letter to dot grid paper” on our research blog.

Berger described their planned project at its beginning in 2024: “This quilt will explore the Appalachian Trail and who this ‘public’ resource was actually designed for. It will look at the history of the trail and through-hikers like Emma Gatewood, who popularized the trail, as well as how it was created and how it is used today. In particular the project will explore how the trail intersects with histories of race, gender, and Indigenous rights of both the trail as a whole and in the specific states is passes through.”

The quilt is currently on display in the Scholars’ Lab Common Room (Shannon Library 308), opposite our main entrance. Copies of the zine are on a table below the quilt, or can be read or printed from online for free.

Data quilt 3D model

Arin Bennett captured this 3D scan of the front of the quilt; use your cursor to move it around a bit, to get a sense of the depth and texture of the quilt, and the command key will let you pan around the 3D object instead of just pivoting it (helpful when zooming in on details).

Data quilt images

Photo of a data quilt created by Claudia Berger, showing cream, white, navy, maize, charcoal, and sage green hand-dyed fabric arranged in blocks and triangles representing data from their research on who the "public" Appalachian Trail was actually designed for, & since used by. Full data quilt

The quilt sections are meant to be read in the following spiral order, as explained in the accompanying zine:

Closeup photo of a section of a data quilt by Claudia Berger, showing the words "Which public?" stitched in cream threa don a purple cloth background Section 1

Closeup photo of a section of a data quilt by Claudia Berger, showing a pixelated map of the United States rendered in beige, maize yellow, gray and charcoal quilted squares Section 2

Closeup photo of a section of a data quilt by Claudia Berger, showing checkered quilted squares in sage green, cream, white, and maize yellow Section 3

Closeup photo of a section of a data quilt by Claudia Berger, showing quilted triangles in beige, maize yellow, charcoal, and sage green Section 4

Closeup photo of a section of a data quilt by Claudia Berger, showing a pixelated map of the U.S. in quilted squares of purple, gray, and sage green Section 5

Closeup photo of a section of a data quilt by Claudia Berger, showing quilted triangles in purple, maize yellow, cream, and charcoal Section 6

Zine images

The front cover of the "Footpath for the People? A Zine Companion to a Data Quilt about the Appalachian Trail" zine, which contains the text of the title in blank ink in a white background, the author's name (Claudia Berger), and a photo of a data quilt created by Claudia Berger, showing cream, white, navy, maize, charcoal, and sage green hand-dyed fabric arranged in blocks and triangles representing data from their research on who the "public" Appalachian Trail was actually designed for, and since used by."

Collaborators: