[-empyre-] Introducing Datascapes with Teri Rueb, Brett Stalbaum and John Tonkin

["-empyre-admin" <empyre-admin@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>]

 -empyre-  takes pleasure in welcoming Teri Rueb, Brett Stalbaum and John
Tonkin, all artists whose work engages GPS  and data-base systems as an
exploration of
new content in landscape aesthetics, data mapping and psycho-geographies.

Today our new media landscape moves from an aesthetic of
representation and mimesis to a data driven generative
model for exploration.  Data is the actual expression
of our ability to model both humanity and the planet as a system.
Because it is actual, data plays an intermediary and
"actualizing" role in the human relationship to the
landscape. The role of the virtual in the unfolding of
the actual is quickened, more dynamic, more
widespread, and more embedded in our culture at this
moment in time than at any other.  What are the
implications for digital culture, artistic practice
and tactical media?

Specifically, in the current context of  war,  we are
seeing satellite imaging and GPS technology used to
guide missiles, construct high definition maps, direct
movement of troops and aircraft, and image space as
territory. Questions regarding the representation of
space and corollary constructions of identity are
raised with every broadcast, press briefing,
illustration and photograph. Real-time unpacking of
the rhetoric behind these cartographic texts is
urgently needed and we look forward to this month's
forum unfolding as a space for such discussion and
debate.

 ==============================
 --------Teri Rueb (Baltimore, MD) has used global
positioningsatellite (GPS) technology in her work
since 1996 to explore issues of space, mapping,
landscape, memory,
the body and cultural identity. Her current research
explores sonic and acoustic constructions of space,
spatialized narrative, human movement and
psycho-social geography.

<http://www.umbc.edu/~rueb>

 --------------Brett Stalbaum (San Jose, California)
is a C5 research theorist specializing in
theory,database,and software development. The C5
Landscape projects, initiated in 2001, involve
mapping, navigation and search of the landscape using
internally produced Geographic Information Systems. He
has recently been involved in code development and
research/theory work on database, the artist's role in
the problems of large data, and landscape art.

 <http://cadre.sjsu.edu/beestal>

----------John Tonkin  (Sydney, Australia) is a artist ,
programmer and curator who has worked for nearly two
decades with animation, software development and
databases.  His recent works are formed through the
accumulated interactions of users and  investigate
assumptions relating to subjectivity, scientific
belief systems and the body. John recently curated
"All Star Data Mappers" for d.lux Media Arts, a survey of artists and
designers who are building information visualisation
software to navigate the complex terrain of the
electronic datasphere.

http://www.johnt.org
http://www.dlux.org.au/dataterra/exhibition.html