"Where
are you from? The Plural nature of Reality- Art Historical
Context"
2002
by
Pat Badani
Where
are you from draws upon a long history of mapping, unified into
contemporary situationism through media technology. It attempts
to map a new topography and extend current map-making practices
in media art. Map-making belongs to the most ancient forms of
art common to all primitive nations. The map created is destined
to inform others about the "known" world as well as the "unknown" world,
one yet to be discovered. New modes of map-making correspond
to moments of expanding horizons and technological advancement,
like during the European explorations of the 15th and 16th Century.
The invention of practical instruments, professionalized what
had been largely an intuitive craft very much attached to the
notion of painted representation of the world. Yet, it is not
until the 19th Century's positivistic and rationalized view of
the world that map-making becomes a science. In the 20th Century
the accepted, unitary Euclidean space breaks down thanks to new
theories of relativity in physics, proposed by Einstein and Pontcare.
The idea of a single referential space gives way to the idea
of an infinity of spaces qualitatively and quantitatively different
from each other. Today, expansion into cyberspace is providing
us with new modes of exploration and the mapping of new geographies
not bound to the ground. A new frontier lies in molecular and
genetic characterization. This is expressed in the new gene map
of the Human Genome Project, in which approaches to mapping include
new technologies in expression profiling, sequence analysis and
mutation analysis.The repercussions of these phenomena in 21st
Century art are significant, due to the historical analogy between
maps and pictorial space. Artists were liberated from mimetic
figuration and a new order of representation of the world opens
up with 20th Century avant-garde. Artists used the notion of
mapping often calling for a type of fragmentation that would
inhibit a unitary reconstruction of space. Maps became somewhat
of a space-time converter, a sort of tool extending pictorial
horizons to that of geography. Conceptual and Land-Artists leave
the space of the studio in order to work in nature or in the
city. In these instances the map becomes an instrument extending
the art-works into real space, while the body in motion, becomes
itself the measure of space. This type of map is offered as measure
of a new Post-modern syndrome: the loss of sense of place. For
some, the measuring system itself becomes the measure of space,
an instrument of reflection where the space of representation
merges with real space, like in the psychogeographies of Debord
and the Situationsists. Towards the end of the 20th Century,
the map becomes a surface that opened the potential for all kinds
of inscriptions. Artists used the map not like a picture, but
rather as a rhizome (Gilles Deleuze), and the notion of taking
measure of space is completely reevaluated.Currently, architectural
theorists like Marcos Novac, propose that cybernetic modes can
lead us towards new ways of mapping the world. Cybergeography,
which is based on information, reorients itself towards immaterial
qualities that have to do with connections, relations and associations.
Elements of interactivity that take into account the changed
and changing conditions of our world, produce yet another shift
in our mapping system. Traditionally a map is something that
is read, observed, contemplated, consulted, and thus placing
the subject as "observer". Interactivity and telematics challenge
and reverse this fixed position. The observer becomes "participant".
The resulting mapped form is a translation of fluid and heterogeneous
qualities.Map making practices have expanded. Digital domains
open new realms of exploration that might make the discoveries
of previous centuries seem like small conquests by comparison.
Instead of maps just telling us where we are, we now consult
maps to acquire all kinds of information. Some of these maps
can offer continually changing collages, identity signs and symbols;
layers of information that bring to light the relative and plural
nature of reality. My project is located precisely at this historical
juncture.
Bibliography
-Brayer,
Marie-Ange- " Expose / Revue d'esthetique et d'art contemporain,
#2 : Perte d'Insription ". Editions XYZ. Paris, France. 1995-Jaubert,
Jean-Pierre- "La Cartographie", Periscope: Institut Geographique
Natoinal. Paris, France. 1989-Kupcik, Ivan-"Cartes Geographiques
Anciennes: Evolution de la representation cartographique du monde
de l'antiquite a la fin du XIX sciecle". Grund. 1980-Novak, Marcus-" Liquid
Architecture in Cyberspace ". Published in " Cyberspace : First
Steps " p. 251 by Michael Benedikt. MIT Press 1991-"Expanding
Horizons" : http://www.ibiblio.org-"Map making" : http://collections.ic.gc.ca/teach/mapmaking/intro.htm
-"The
Human Genome Research" : http://www.er.doe.gov/production/ober/hug_top.html |