Journal of History and Culture Journal of History and Culture

j o u r n a l o f h i s t o r y a n d c u l t u r e
such statutes were used to break up lawful and peaceful protests by civil rights activists. In the particular context
of Atlanta, the regulation and penalization of “loitering” was, and remains, a powerful example of the intersection
between race and space.
Although there are clear and reasonable safety prerogatives that might compel state action on issues such
as “loitering” (however one might define that activity), in the case of Atlanta, the history of enforcement of loitering
laws pitted the right of individuals to determine just where and when they might wish to pause amidst their daily
routine and the desire of the state to exercise authority over the movement of certain bodies through the urban
landscape. As anyone who has spent time at a university knows, students spend a great deal of time engaging in
behavior that off-campus would certainly qualify as loitering. The location of such activity—on or off campus—goes
a long way towards determining whether it is prosecutable or not. The logic of the intervention emerged from these
intertwined conditions.
Using tape and chalk (to avoid charges of vandalism), two routes where marked out on the tunnel: one a blue
line running directly through the length of the tunnel—a non-loitering route; the second route, in red, meandered,
proceeding in a seemingly aimless fashion, with stops along the way where those following the route were encouraged
to sit an provided chair for a rest, jump over a mark, “hi-five” the wall, and pause to “reflect” (Figure 3). At one point,
the two lines, red and blue, run side by side, encouraging interaction between both groups of users. On the campus
side of the tunnel, chalking instructed users to pick a line to follow; on the city side of the tunnel, chalking directed
users to follow a single line, which once it entered the tunnel, split into two lines, one of which was denoted as
“students only.” Users moving from the city side were asked to engage in an act of self-identification, unlike those
moving through the tunnel from the campus side. The students then filmed the responses of users (students, faculty,
staff, city residents unaffiliated with Tech, and even police) as they passed through the tunnel during a single day
(Figure 4).
The playful nature of the intervention is reflected in the largely positive response of users to it, with many
following the meandering path and others dutifully following the direct route step-for-step. Even an Atlanta city
police officer on his beat on bicycle rode the meandering route with care. Engaged with the space of the tunnel in
an unexpected way, users were encouraged to reconsider their preconceptions about the operation of the space and
their own sense of identity as they moved through it. The banal, plain, and perhaps ominous site, through the joint
effort of designer and user, became something quite different. Anxiety was replaced with curiosity, a swap that in
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