Re: [-empyre-] psychogeographies - opening statement

["What do you worship..." <hecticred@yahoo.com>]

Dear Teri,
Your writing is some of the best that  I have seen on the empyre exchanges.
Like you, I have "lurked" here but, more often than not, tuned out after a couple of
sentences of cyber theory-just way too abstract for me; an abstract artist.
Your approach and explanation are clear and very compelling to read.
Thank you. I'm grateful that I saved your email because now I am willing to give empyre
another go.
All the best,
Eliza Fernbach
http://www.hecticred.net


--- Teri Rueb <teri@echonyc.com> wrote:
> Hello, empyre!  At last.  It appears that my prior email was rejected 
> for having the word hello in the subject line....
> 
> My approach to the theme of this month's discussion is from the point 
> of view of a practicing artist.  It is an honor and pleasure to share 
> this space for dialogue with Brett Stalbaum whose work I appreciate 
> very much and hold in high regard.  I'm also delighted and privileged 
> to join Jon Tonkin as a discussant whose work and words are new to me 
> - and all the more thrilling for that.
> 
> I would like to thank Christina McPhee and Melinda Rackam for the 
> invitation to serve as guest discussant.  While so far I have only 
> lurked on empyre, I have done so with rapt interest and gratitude for 
> the high altitude discussions that take place here.  So, thanks 
> Christina for offering a peek at my introductory comments...the full 
> text follows:
> 
> My work explores issues of architecture, time, memory and the body 
> through site-specific interactive sound installation.  I have used 
> global positioning satellite (GPS) technology in my practice since 
> 1996 to explore issues of space, mapping, landscape and cultural 
> identity.  My current research explores sonic and acoustic 
> constructions of space, spatialized narrative, human movement and 
> psycho-social geography.    Much of this work involves the mapping of 
> sound to space where invisible sonic overlays are made to correspond 
> to a particular geographic region: for example, a portion of the 
> Canadian Rockies in "Trace," or the city of Baltimore, Maryland in 
> "Invisible Cities | Sounding Baltimore".  Almost all of my works are 
> large-scale outdoor interactive installations that utilize GPS 
> technology and cellular networks in combination with digital 
> interactive sound and/or custom web-based real-time imaging software. 
> Installations are accessed and/or generated by the movement of 
> visitor-participants who travel through these environments with 
> custom built GPS-enabled wireless devices.
> 
> Recent works, including "The Choreography of Everyday Movement" and 
> "Invisible Cities | Sounding Baltimore" incorporate the visual trace 
> of human movement through urban landscapes as generated with GPS 
> tracking.  These performance-drawings, made by willing participants 
> as part of their daily journeys, are like charcoal rubbings of the 
> physical and discursive landscape of the city as written by the body. 
> Mappings, presented for archival viewing as layered transparent 
> drawings, accumulate over time to provide a morphological view of the 
> urban body as defined through human movement.
> 
> My recent writings examine issues of orality and literacy with 
> respect to the proliferation of wireless ubiquitous computing and 
> location-aware systems in art and everyday life.  This work was 
> recently presented at the CAiiA Consciousness Reframed Conference in 
> Perth, Australia.  Through my practice I have consistently sought to 
> challenge rational, ocular-centric constructions of space and time 
> implicit within mainstream urban design, architecture, digital 
> systems and GPS technology itself, as a product of military and 
> scientific research.  However, explicit critiques of the military 
> origins and uses of GPS have remained at the margins of my practice - 
> acknowledged, yet unexplored.
> 
> Given the theme of this month's discussion and the recent outbreak of 
> war with Iraq, I am compelled to give the discussion over to 
> questions of psycho-geographies and data landscapes as they relate to 
> war.  More than any other war, we are seeing satellite imaging and 
> GPS technology used to guide missiles, construct high definition 
> data-embedded 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 and tactics 
> is urgently needed.  I look forward to this month's forum unfolding 
> as a space for such discussion and debate.
> 
> As I wrote this last paragraph last week I was thinking especially of 
> the "battlefield weather reports" on CNN which have used 
> sophisticated satellite imagery to create almost video game-like 
> graphics of "cold fronts moving in from the north," etc..  It strikes 
> me as a particularly insidious use of "neutral" data to present very 
> biased, if not propagandistic, representations of the war.  Perhaps 
> this might serve as a starting point for our discussion - if not, I 
> would certainly appreciate triangulation on this observation off line 
> or in any other format!
> 
> Thanks, again.
> Teri
> 
> 
> -- 
> 
> .....http://www.research.umbc.edu/~rueb......
> 
> _______________________________________________
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=====
Would you shoot me for my running shoes?
-E. B.