What is GPS Art?An Exploration of Artistic Paths

Jeff MollApril 10, 2007

What is GPS Art?

http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2849810430047123626zlZGYe

http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~highrise/flat/where/maps/map4.gif

What is Art?“If an artist says it’s art, it’s art.”

– Roberta Smith

http://arthistory.westvalley.edu/images/D/DUCHAMP/FOUNTAIN.JPG

What is Art?

Something is a work of art if it is “intended as art, presented as such, and … judged to be art by those qualified in such matters.”

– Grace Clueck

What is Art?

“Art is expression; and expression we may describe…as the putting forth of purpose,

feeling, or thought into a sensuous medium, where they can be experienced again by the one who expresses himself

and communicated to others.”– Dewitt H. Parker describing Benedito Croce’s definition of ‘art’

Is “GPS Art” Really Art?

“Artists”CriticsGPS as a medium

- technical limitations- capabilities and possibilities

Social ImplicationsThe Answer

The Artists – Hugh Pryor and Jeremy Wood

http://www.gpsdrawing.com/gallery/land/belephant.htm

The Brighton Elephant

The Artists – Hugh Pryor and Jeremy Wood

LAX Airport

http://www.gpsdrawing.com/

The Artists – Masaki Fujihata

http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/impressing-velocity/

Impressing Velocity

The Artists – Jeremy Hight, Jeff Knowlton and Naomi Spellman

from Martin Rieser, “Place, Space and Narrative Forms”

34 North 118 West

The Artists – Timo Arnall

Photography and Mapping from Afar

http://www.elasticspace.com/images/afar_photo_map00.jpg

The Artists – Timo Arnall

Time that Land Forgot

http://www.elasticspace.com/2004/07/timeland

The Artists – 0100101110101101.org

http://0100101110101101.org/index.html

The Artists – Nancy Nisbet

http://www.turbulence.org/blog/images/xray.jpg

The Critics

Bloggers – Matt Ward“The map is open, connectable in all its dimensions, and capable of

being dismantled; it is reversible and susceptible to constant modifaction…. Contrary to a tracing which always returns to the ‘same,’ a map has multiple entrances.”

– French philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari

Scholars – Martin Reiser“The GPS drawing project simultaneously combines the idea of

mapping and walking…. But these landscape mapes seem purely aesthetic in their intention.”

The GPS Medium - Limitations

• Preexisting Infrastructure• Primitive/Restricted Aesthetic• Technological Flaws• Homogenization of Space• Expense• Participation• Exhibiting Technology

The GPS Medium - Possibilities

Universal VisibilityPhysical ScaleObjective/Common ExperienceAssimilation of Technology and LifeExpansion of Human ReachMakes Invisible VisibleManipulation of DimensionsTranslating the Passive vs. the Active

Looking Back to the Clouds…

http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2799282800047123626KXdaRi

And Back to the Map…

http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~highrise/flat/where/maps/map4.gif

www.gpsdrawing.com/gallery/land/if.htm

The Answer

Critics

Society’s Response- our minds- our eyes

The Answer

“Unless you know where to look you will never see them.”

- Mark Ward (on Wood and Pryor)

Society’s Reaction

Our Minds

Our Eyes

ReferencesArnall, Timo. “Photography and Mapping from Afar.” Elastic Space. 28 Jul. 2004. 9 Apr. 2007. <http://www.elasticspace.com/2004/07/afar>.

Arnall, Timo. “Time that Land Forgot.” Elastic Space. 30 Jul. 2004. 9 Apr. 2007. <http://www.elasticspace.com/2004/07/timeland>.

Greene, Jo-Anne and Helen Thornton. “GPS Art.” networked_performance 30 Mar. 2005. 9 Apr. 2007. <http://www.turbulence.org/blog/archives/000776.html>.

Hibino, Kikuhiko and Aldo Figueroa. “Global Positioning System (GPS): MAT200A.” University of California Santa Barbara. 9 Apr. 2007. <http://www.mat.ucsb.edu/~g.legrady/academic/courses/02w200a/gps/>.

Kamhi, Michelle Marder and Louis Torres. “Supplement to What Art Is: The Esthetic Theory of Ayn Rand – Chapter 6 - The Definition of Art.” ‘What Art Is’ Online.

2000. 9 Apr. 2007. <http://www.aristos.org/whatart/ch6.htm>.

Lakshmi, Sandhana. “With GPS, World Is Your Canvas.” Wired News 22 Jun. 2002. 9 Apr. 2007. <http://www.wired.com/news/culture/1,52989-0.html>.

References (continued)Mirapaul, Matthew. “Drawing (and Doodling) With Countryside as Canvas.” The New York Times 1 Apr. 2002: E2.

Parker, Dewitt H. The Principles of Aesthetics. IndyPublish, 2001. Authorama. 9 Apr. 2007 <http://www.authorama.com/principles-of-aesthetics-3.html>.

Rieser, Martin. “Place, Space and New Narrative Forms.” Bath Spa University College, Bath, England.

Scheeres, Julia. “New Body Art: Chip Implants.” Wired News 11 Mar. 2002. 9 Apr. 2007. <http://www.wired.com/news/culture/1,50769-0.html>.

Ward, Mark. “Safari by Satellite.” BBC News Online. 15 Oct. 2001. 9 Apr. 2007. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/sci_tech/2000/dot_life/1595670.stm>.

Ward, Matt. “GPS Drawing: Meaningless Spatial Squiggles.” Thinking About Things 11 Feb. 2005. 9 Apr. 2007. <http://triptychresearch.typepad.com/thinking_about_things/2005/02/gps_drawing_mea.html>.

Whale, George. “Why Use Computers to Make Drawings?” Proceedings of the 4th Conference on Creativity and Cognition (2002): pp. 65-71.