Mapping Project

Beverly Hills, CA

As I examine the map, starting from the building I lived in, I remember the buildings nearby and trace them onto the Open Streetmaps Project. I draw the buildings 'psychogeographicly', remembering places I saw as I walked through the area. This map is a work in progress, so far based only on my personal experience.

Beyond Mapping...

Conceptual Locative Video solution.....

Having drawn buildings on the Open Street Map of the neighborhood I lived in while in Los Angeles, I struggled with other ways to use mapping and passage through public space for art. or "art"? what is locative 'art'? Tracing the outlines of buildings on top of a satellite image started to feel tedious and unnecessary. When I looked at Google Earth, I saw that the buildings I was tracing were already built with Sketchup and they are modeled in 3D, even with images pasted onto the 3D building models. Google Earth is already moving toward a virtual 3D environment of the space I was trying to remember and build. In other words, the system is way ahead of my current thinking. How do I get beyond that?

I want to build a conceptual video piece that follows the psychogeography of the landscape, while presenting images not necessarily associated with the currently available media. The idea is to wander through the space, choosing direction based purely on impulse, rather than predetermined destination. The inspiration for this wandering is based on Guy Debord's Theory of the Derive.

http://library.nothingness.org/articles/SI/en/display/314

As I move through the space, and encounter intersections, a choice will be made as to which direction to go. As I document each intersection with video images, I will compile a set of significant images based on a predetermined criteria for each image. These images can then be assembled into a rhythmic presentation of the criteria that is predetermined (through video editing). The result will hopefully convey a movement through the public space, based on the predetermined criteria, emphasizing the mood of the geography. The 'mood' will be set by the images shown in the edited video.

The mood I intend to emphasize is walking versus driving. Our experience of a space is completely different depending upon how we pass through the space. Driving in a car is a totally different experience than walking, even though we move through the same space.

My video experiment will be based on walking, exploring the intersections on foot, then later assembling the footpaths into a rhythmic assembly of the spaces experienced.

Stay tuned for this video walking experiment....

Mapping Project

Beverly Hills, CA.  

Starting in the neighborhood where I lived when I was in Los Angeles.

As I map this area, I recall the places I passed through, the buildings I saw, the moods of the neighborhoods.  Using OpenStreetMaps, with the assistance of ariel imagery, I will draw buildings and recall my personal experience with the places on the map.  The unexpressed psychology of the landscape unfolds as I map places I've been, remembering my passage through these areas.  

in response to "Trimble GPS Tutorial"

In the section "Other ways to work with Differential GPS" an example is given regarding the accurate locations of every bus in a fleet of busses.  

What if every car on the road was included?  Could a system like this be a starting point for a central control center for everyone's cars?  In other words, could cars be totally automated by linking them to a control center, entirely computerizing their mobility and eliminating human error from the equation?  

response to Street Maps and GPS Revolution

Since GPS started as military tech and eventually became available to the public, should we wonder what military tech exists today that is not yet available to the public?

The ultimate Earth mapping would consist of a conglomeration of mapping projects, not just one. In addition to a fully 3-dimensional virtual Earth, the Ultimate iteration would have to include real time information, as I discussed in the previous blog.

How close are we really to that realization?  If we consider the top secret military factor, we might be closer than we think...

in response to "Beyond Locative Media"

The idea of every object being tracked and mapped is both interesting and scary.  Combine this with every inch of the globe being mapped, and the entire world could exist in two places- reality, and virtual reality.

Imagine a mapping system far more detailed than Google's current version, even far beyond their street view or Google Earth.  In this new virtual reality representation of the world, the map is no longer built with 2-dimensional satellite images and street images, but could become a photo realistic, fully 3-dimensional environment.  Combined with the information from every object- (made possible by a world of ubiquitous computing), this virtual reality version of the world could reflect the locations of everything on the grid, starting with every car on the road, and ultimately every person on Earth.  All live, in real time.

Ideas for 1st mapping project...

Paths of Astrological Constellations.  (Zodiac)

Choose a map area with Google maps.  (somewhere within San Francisco)

Save an image of the map.

Create an image of each of the Constellations of the Zodiac.

Choose a starting point on the map.  

Using Photoshop, overlay the Constellation images onto the Google map, matching one point for each image to the starting point.  Use a separate layer for each constellation image.  

Using one constellation layer at a time, save a separate image for each map.  (12 total)

Print out each Constellation map.

Create a path (draw it on the map) for each Constellation on the map.  Each path should begin on the designated starting point, and end at the same starting point.

(make copies as needed)

Gather participants at the starting point.

Give a map to each participant, according to their astrological zodiac sign.

Everyone will follow their own path, either solo or with others, walking the path of their astrological sign.

As they walk along their paths, if anyone meets with someone from a different sign, they should each take a picture of the person or persons they meet.

When everyone has returned to the designated starting point, compare the images and discuss the paths taken.