Location-Specific Art Practices - Revision history

Caseorganic at 11:54, 26 August 2026

2026-08-26T11:54:23Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 11:54, 26 August 2026
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	''NOTE: The author and publication venue for this title could not be confirmed. The entry below describes the subject the title names and the literature it belongs to; the citation should be completed by anyone who knows the original.''

	===Subject===		===Subject===
	~~The title names the~~ body of art practice that uses location technology to challenge what a map is and what it can be for — treating cartography as a medium ~~with~~ conventions to be broken ~~rather than as a neutral technique~~.		A body of art practice that uses location technology to challenge what a map is and what it can be for — treating cartography as a medium, and considering the normative use of maps as conventions that might be broken in interesting ways.

	~~===What Conventional Mapping Assumes===~~		Nearly everyone now navigates through a small number of commercial mapping services whose selection, ranking, naming and rendering decisions are proprietary. The practices in this Location-Specific Art Practices present a catalog of the questions that might be asked of those services — and a potential demonstration of alternative experiences and possibilities.
	The ~~critique proceeds from~~ a ~~short list~~ of ~~assumptions built into~~ the ~~standard map, each~~ of ~~which is~~ a ~~choice rather than a necessity:~~

			Assumptions built into the standard map:
	* '''A view from above and nowhere.''' The map is drawn from a position no observer occupies, which produces its air of objectivity.		* '''A view from above and nowhere.''' The map is drawn from a position no observer occupies, which produces its air of objectivity.
	* '''A single moment.''' Maps are static; the territory is not.		* '''A single moment.''' Maps are static; the territory is not.
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	* '''Space as container.''' The map shows where things are, not how the space is produced or by whom — the objection [[Henri Lefebvre\|Lefebvre]] makes to "representations of space." See [[The Production of Space\|''The Production of Space'']].		* '''Space as container.''' The map shows where things are, not how the space is produced or by whom — the objection [[Henri Lefebvre\|Lefebvre]] makes to "representations of space." See [[The Production of Space\|''The Production of Space'']].

	===~~How Artists Have Contested Them~~===		===Example Practices===
	Practices in this tradition include: '''trace maps''' recording a single body's actual path rather than an abstract network; '''emotional and affective mapping''', charting fear, comfort or memory across a terrain, in the psychogeographic lineage of [[Guy Debord\|Debord]]; '''sound and smell maps''', substituting a non-visual sense for the visual convention; '''temporal maps''' that show a place across time rather than at an instant; '''counter-maps''' that add what official cartography omits (see ''[[An Atlas of Radical Cartography]]''); '''participatory maps''' made by inhabitants rather than surveyors; and '''deliberately unusable maps''' — deformed, subjective or partial — that make the fact of construction visible by refusing to function.		Practices in this tradition include: '''trace maps''' recording a single body's actual path rather than an abstract network; '''emotional and affective mapping''', charting fear, comfort or memory across a terrain, in the psychogeographic lineage of [[Guy Debord\|Debord]]; '''sound and smell maps''', substituting a non-visual sense for the visual convention; '''temporal maps''' that show a place across time rather than at an instant; '''counter-maps''' that add what official cartography omits (see ''[[An Atlas of Radical Cartography]]''); '''participatory maps''' made by inhabitants rather than surveyors; and '''deliberately unusable maps''' — deformed, subjective or partial — that make the fact of construction visible by refusing to function.

	Christian Nold's ''Bio Mapping'' and ''Emotion Maps'' projects, which recorded galvanic skin response alongside GPS position to produce maps of arousal across a walked route, are among the best-documented examples, and are notable for having been made with participants rather than about them.		Christian Nold's ''Bio Mapping'' and ''Emotion Maps'' projects, which recorded galvanic skin response alongside GPS position to produce maps of arousal across a walked route, are among the best-documented examples, and are notable for having been made with participants rather than about them.

	~~===The Recurring Difficulty===~~		Work in this area encounters a consistent problem, identified early by locative media literature. A map that successfully refuses the conventions of mapping loses the authority that made mapping worth appropriating. The counter-map borrows credibility from the form it is attacking, and the more thoroughly it breaks the form, the less it borrows. Most durable projects in the tradition therefore keep the map's visual grammar and change only its content — which is effective, and which leaves the deeper assumptions intact.
	Work in this area encounters a consistent problem, ~~which the~~ locative media literature ~~named early~~. A map that successfully refuses the conventions of mapping loses the authority that made mapping worth appropriating. The counter-map borrows credibility from the form it is attacking, and the more thoroughly it breaks the form, the less it borrows. Most durable projects in the tradition therefore keep the map's visual grammar and change only its content — which is effective, and which leaves the deeper assumptions intact.

	~~===Relevance to Cyborg Anthropology===~~
	Nearly everyone now navigates through a small number of commercial mapping services whose selection, ranking, naming and rendering decisions are proprietary and unexamined. The practices in this tradition are, in effect, a catalogue of the questions worth asking of those services — and a demonstration that every one of their apparently technical choices could have been made otherwise.

	===Related Reading===		===Related Reading===

Caseorganic at 17:22, 25 August 2026

2026-08-25T17:22:40Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 17:22, 25 August 2026
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	''The author and publication venue for this title could not be confirmed. The entry below describes the subject the title names and the literature it belongs to; the citation should be completed by anyone who knows the original.''		''NOTE: The author and publication venue for this title could not be confirmed. The entry below describes the subject the title names and the literature it belongs to; the citation should be completed by anyone who knows the original.''

	===Subject===		===Subject===

Caseorganic: Created page with "''The author and publication venue for this title could not be confirmed. The entry below describes the subject the title names and the literature it belongs to; the citation should be completed by anyone who knows the original.'' ===Subject=== The title names the body of art practice that uses location technology to challenge what a map is and what it can be for — treating cartography as a medium with conventions to be broken rather than as a neutral technique. ===W..."

2026-08-25T17:20:27Z

Created page with "''The author and publication venue for this title could not be confirmed. The entry below describes the subject the title names and the literature it belongs to; the citation should be completed by anyone who knows the original.'' ===Subject=== The title names the body of art practice that uses location technology to challenge what a map is and what it can be for — treating cartography as a medium with conventions to be broken rather than as a neutral technique. ===W..."

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''The author and publication venue for this title could not be confirmed. The entry below describes the subject the title names and the literature it belongs to; the citation should be completed by anyone who knows the original.''

===Subject===
The title names the body of art practice that uses location technology to challenge what a map is and what it can be for — treating cartography as a medium with conventions to be broken rather than as a neutral technique.

===What Conventional Mapping Assumes===
The critique proceeds from a short list of assumptions built into the standard map, each of which is a choice rather than a necessity:

* '''A view from above and nowhere.''' The map is drawn from a position no observer occupies, which produces its air of objectivity.
* '''A single moment.''' Maps are static; the territory is not.
* '''Selection presented as completeness.''' Everything on a map was chosen; nothing indicates what was left out.
* '''Naming as fact.''' Place names on a map are the names used by whoever made it.
* '''Space as container.''' The map shows where things are, not how the space is produced or by whom — the objection [[Henri Lefebvre|Lefebvre]] makes to "representations of space." See [[The Production of Space|''The Production of Space'']].

===How Artists Have Contested Them===
Practices in this tradition include: '''trace maps''' recording a single body's actual path rather than an abstract network; '''emotional and affective mapping''', charting fear, comfort or memory across a terrain, in the psychogeographic lineage of [[Guy Debord|Debord]]; '''sound and smell maps''', substituting a non-visual sense for the visual convention; '''temporal maps''' that show a place across time rather than at an instant; '''counter-maps''' that add what official cartography omits (see ''[[An Atlas of Radical Cartography]]''); '''participatory maps''' made by inhabitants rather than surveyors; and '''deliberately unusable maps''' — deformed, subjective or partial — that make the fact of construction visible by refusing to function.

Christian Nold's ''Bio Mapping'' and ''Emotion Maps'' projects, which recorded galvanic skin response alongside GPS position to produce maps of arousal across a walked route, are among the best-documented examples, and are notable for having been made with participants rather than about them.

===The Recurring Difficulty===
Work in this area encounters a consistent problem, which the locative media literature named early. A map that successfully refuses the conventions of mapping loses the authority that made mapping worth appropriating. The counter-map borrows credibility from the form it is attacking, and the more thoroughly it breaks the form, the less it borrows. Most durable projects in the tradition therefore keep the map's visual grammar and change only its content — which is effective, and which leaves the deeper assumptions intact.

===Relevance to Cyborg Anthropology===
Nearly everyone now navigates through a small number of commercial mapping services whose selection, ranking, naming and rendering decisions are proprietary and unexamined. The practices in this tradition are, in effect, a catalogue of the questions worth asking of those services — and a demonstration that every one of their apparently technical choices could have been made otherwise.

===Related Reading===
* [[An Atlas of Radical Cartography]]
* [[Experimental Geography: Radical Approaches to Landscape, Cartography, and Urbanism]]
* [[Else/Where: Mapping - New Cartographies of Networks and Territories]]
* [[Narrative Archaeology]]
* [[Guy Debord]]
* [[The Production of Space]]

[[Category:Articles]]
[[Category:Time and Space]]
[[Category:Critical Theory]]