From Longhouse to Highrise: The Course of Empire

Dele Adeyemo’s From Longhouse to Highrise: The Course of Empire critically examines the myth of linear progress ingrained in Western narratives of development. Inspired by the 19th-century series The Course of Empire by Thomas Cole, the project deconstructs how land transitions—from Indigenous stewardship to settler colonial agriculture and ultimately to institutional campuses—reveal the violent processes of empire-building masked as inevitable progress. This work focuses on York University’s Keele campus, engaging deeply with the land’s layered histories and its symbolic role in the teleological imaginary of development.

Executed as a multidimensional archive, the project blends soundscapes with architectural projections to expose the entangled histories of land, development, and resistance. Adeyemo’s methodological approach, Trans-Epistemic Mapping, integrates ecological drawings, aerial photographs, topographic maps, and archival literature to reconstruct the shifting geography of North York. Complementing these mappings, soundscapes built from community voices—including students, faculty, and local activists—capture the lived experiences and perspectives of those connected to the land. These voices are structured into a sonic collage, amplifying a multiplicity of narratives that challenge singular histories of progress.

The project’s design is rooted in iterative experimentation, balancing technical precision with evocative storytelling. Collaborations with Strike Design Studio and sound designer Tony Njoku helped translate Adeyemo’s findings into immersive experiences. The architectural projections, informed by historical research, and the layered audio elements together evoke the physical and emotional traces of land transitions over time.

Commissioned for the Joan and Martin Goldfarb Gallery at York University, this work situates the campus within the broader context of colonial legacies. By weaving together cartographic tools, design processes, and communal storytelling, Adeyemo highlights the complexities of history embedded in the built environment. The project challenges viewers to reckon with these narratives while imagining alternative futures grounded in collective memory and resistance.