An opportunity for art
Posted by Jeremy Morley on May 3, 2013
Here's something I'd been meaning to put forward as a different opportunity for the conference. There is a pair of artists, Dan Belasco Rogers and Sophia New, who make and perform art based around their locations and geography. For 10 years Dan, and for 5 years Soph have logged their positions and hence movements with GPSs. They also collect all the text messages they send between themselves, and various other facets of their lives. They have a website here: http://www.planbperformance.net
Some of what they produce is relatively figurative and map-like, produced as plots of the GPS trails (http://www.planbperformance.net/index.php?id=gps). Other work is more performative. We worked with them a year or so ago on a project called "Soul Tracker" (our bit was producing a piece of software to model where a walking "soul" would be as it trailed behind a person, trying to catch up. If you fancy a laugh there's a video from that project, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeG2DVdmmiA ). This evening I was at an event where they were reflecting on their work which finally sparked this email.
I think involving them might provide something different in the programme and possibly get people thinking about their data and geography a little differently. As it happens, Dan uses GDAL, QGIS and other FOSS GIS packages in managing and plotting their data so there's another part of the story to tell. I think folk on the LoC at least would find the work and the discussion about the way its achieved stimulating.
It's possible that this might fit better (or even also) in GeoCom or SOTM but I thought I'd push it here first! I'm not sure if it would be something in a stream, at a plenary, one one of the evenings, part of the map gallery, or what.
What does anyone think?
Some of what they produce is relatively figurative and map-like, produced as plots of the GPS trails (http://www.planbperformance.net/index.php?id=gps). Other work is more performative. We worked with them a year or so ago on a project called "Soul Tracker" (our bit was producing a piece of software to model where a walking "soul" would be as it trailed behind a person, trying to catch up. If you fancy a laugh there's a video from that project, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeG2DVdmmiA ). This evening I was at an event where they were reflecting on their work which finally sparked this email.
I think involving them might provide something different in the programme and possibly get people thinking about their data and geography a little differently. As it happens, Dan uses GDAL, QGIS and other FOSS GIS packages in managing and plotting their data so there's another part of the story to tell. I think folk on the LoC at least would find the work and the discussion about the way its achieved stimulating.
It's possible that this might fit better (or even also) in GeoCom or SOTM but I thought I'd push it here first! I'm not sure if it would be something in a stream, at a plenary, one one of the evenings, part of the map gallery, or what.
What does anyone think?
Comments
Rollo Home on May 4, 2013:
My only concern is that we're running out of space/time - especially with the need to now fit in some "derive" time ;-)