[spectre] April on -empyre-: Datascape with Teri Rueb, Brett Stalbaum and John Tonkin

[Michael Arnold Mages]

April on -empyre-:  Datascape with Teri Rueb, Brett Stalbaum and John Tonkin

 -empyre-  takes pleasure in welcoming three  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.

Please join Teri, Brett and John starting April 1 on -empyre-

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 --Teri Rueb (Baltimore, MD) has used global positioning satellite (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 psychosocial geography.

--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.

--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

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