I think your emphasis on GPS as a transformative cultural technology
is right on- there is a growing and interesting international movement
on participatory mapping= for instance these workshops in the congo
described below
and indeed GPS is affecting in a deep sense our personal connection
to mapping and geography= a good example of a technology that
shifts the boundary between virtual and real space- and there are
a number of art science projects like yours under way
this also connects the to community remote sensing movement
http://www.earthmagazine.org/earth/article/429-7db-3-15
which enables public access to data from down looking satellites
as you describe:
In their GPS-works most of the participant made a choice for recording
their daily routes, their journeys between their homes, villages and
studio. In doing so they found themselves in a new relation to the
people and space they passed: all became part of a work of art and
gave a new layer to their daily commuting. In that way they
encountered our assignments as: to be aware of your movements. To be a
part of the landscape and social structure you live in. In a way they
all made a portrait of themselves projected on their spatial behavior.
indeed mapping is an idea that is understood by everyone and by making
mapping intimate as you are
doing it enters a personal space that is cultural and i agree is
leading to new kinds
of art making
roger
here is the congo basin project
Participatory mapping workshops underway in Congo
http://esciencenews.com/articles/2011/03/25/participatory.mapping.workshops.underway.congo
Published: Friday, March 25, 2011 - 17:34 in Earth & Climate
Many of the mapping and monitoring efforts associated with REDD focus
on the big picture of carbon stock and of deforestation trends
throughout the tropics. A research expedition just underway, led by
scientists at the Woods Hole Research Center, is focusing on the third
piece necessary to inform a global REDD mechanism – namely, how do
people use the land? Through a series of participatory mapping
workshops with indigenous peoples in the Congo Basin, scientists and
participants are discussing land tenure, forest inventory techniques,
and baselines that could help secure lands for local populations.
Outcomes will include training in the use of GPS for mapping and a
report from interviews done in the field. Nadine Laporte, Glenn Bush,
and Scott Goetz are scientists at WHRC and are leading this effort.
Their itinerary began in Kinshasa, on March 14, and continues to
Gemena, Bikoro, and Mbandaka.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Esther Polak <esther@estherpolak.nl>
Date: Sun, May 22, 2011 at 9:49 PM
Subject: [Yasmin_discussions] LEA New Media Exhibition Re-Drawing
Boundaries: Recent Locative Media workshop Nairobi
To: yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
"Without tubes of paint, there would have been no Impressionism."
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
There is a beautiful story about how in painting the style of
impressionism was fuelled by the invention of the tube. When John
G.Rant in 1841 invented the paint tube, artist where freed from their
studios: they could bring easel, canvas and paint with them in the
field and became mobile painters. This resulted in a totally new
style: the image needed to be produced in just a couple of hour's and
could relate to direct change of light conditions on location. It
revolutionized visual style but also deeply influenced the thematic
focus in landscape depiction. For us this is a very outstanding
example of how technology can bring about the emergence of new a style
and focus of content in art.
When we first encountered GPS technology in 2001, we realized it could
be used as such a new visualization tool for landscape. Like in "Plein
Air" painting, the technology results in work that was secured to a
specific location and timeframe. Besides it brings about a set of new
characteristics: its focus on movement, speed and direction. The fact
that there is a small machine, device involved that automatically
records aspects of reality, connects in our artistic view the medium
to photography and film. Through the years we realized that all those
facets bring about new relationships between artist, landscape,
mobility and representation.
Our motivation to do our own projects but also to do workshops comes
from this fascination and curiosity. In our workshops we find it time
after time exiting to confront other artists with locative media
technology and see what their (first) experiments bring. We explore
the GPS-technology in working together with a wide range of
participants. The goal is to find new ways of thinking about art,
landscape depiction and experience of space. We also explore the new
ways of expression that the mix of skills leads to. Just recently we
conducted a short workshop at de Go Down Arts Center and the CCAEA in
Nairobi. This occasion was very special to us, as every participant
was a painter. The step to using GPS as a tool for making art was a
challenge for them to meet. The first tests we did in the proximity of
the Go Down and the encounter with their own recorded mobility made
them enthusiastic.
In their GPS-works most of the participant made a choice for recording
their daily routes, their journeys between their homes, villages and
studio. In doing so they found themselves in a new relation to the
people and space they passed: all became part of a work of art and
gave a new layer to their daily commuting. In that way they
encountered our assignments as: to be aware of your movements. To be a
part of the landscape and social structure you live in. In a way they
all made a portrait of themselves projected on their spatial behavior.
Just as interesting for us was the new way the transformation of the
GPS-routes into an exhibition took place. We decided explored the full
potential of the artist's painterly skills, and developed a work
method whereby a series of murals was made direct on the walls of the
space. In order to do so the routes were projected on the wall, and
the artists used these projections as a starting point for their
murals.
This resulted in a series of ten very different, visually rich and
colorful works. Some were mere paintings, others used nails and rope
or even newspapers to visualize the GPS-tracks and relive the route,
brush stroke after brush stroke or nail after nail. This led to
colorful and thought through murals that transcended the digital
images in a unique and very personal way.
Find more and images on www.geotales.wordpress.com
Esther Polak and Ivar van Bekkum, May 2011
Esther Polak/Ivar van Bekkum
www.beelddiktee.nl
www.ivarvanbekkum.nl
www.estherpolak.nl
Van Bouwdijk Bastiaansestraat 145
1054 RV Amsterdam
Ivar van Bekkum
+31 (0)6 44692524
ivar@ivarvanbekkum.nl
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