Re: <nettime> Questioning the Frame

[kanarinka <kanarinka@ikatun.com>]

I too have followed this post on different lists with much interest as
I am currently writing a thesis and a journal article for Cartographic
Perspectives on intersections between cartography/art. While I agree
that Coco raises important questions about "categories of embodied
difference", I find the lack of specific examples in her essay very
disappointing. She discusses "new media mantras", "new media culture"
and "new media theory" without giving us specific information on what
these terms mean to her, who uses these terms and for what purpose. The
essay accuses, but it isn't clear who, specifically, is implicated.

The definition of maps as purely spatial presentations of an inherently
panoptic and omniscient point of view ignores a whole field of projects
that are engaging with geographical location in a way that privileges
duration, embodiment, and particularity over the panopticism of
traditional "maps". As these projects are shifting the borders and
boundaries of art, they are also participating in redefining what
constitutes a map and what constitutes a "mapping practice". Many of
them critique traditional mapmaking just as Coco does (e.g. what is
left off of the map? is a truly important question that many projects
_do_ address). These projects are becoming known as Critical
Cartography. What is at stake in most of these projects is performance
and difference, not representation and identity.

These projects use Deleuze's idea of a map as an abstract machine
rather than the traditional panoptic, representational map --
"What can we call such a new informal dimension? On one occasion,
Foucault gives it its most precise name: it is a 'diagram', that is to
say a 'functioning, abstracted from any obstacle =85 or friction and
which must be detached from any specific use'. The diagram is no =
longer an auditory or visual archive but a map, a cartography that is
coextensive with the whole social field. It is an abstract machine. It
is a machine that is almost blind and mute, even though it makes others
see and speak."

=A0Deleuze, Gilles. Foucault. : University of Minnesota Press, 1988.

Here is an excellent set of critical cartography links:
http://www.16beavergroup.org/links.htm

And some other important examples:

Glowlab - www.glowlab.com
Alex Villar - www.de-tour.org
spurse - www.spurse.org
Sifting the Inner Belt -- www.siftingtheinnerbelt.com
The Institute for Infinitely Small Things -
www.infinitelysmallthings.net
Following the Man of the Crowd -- http://glowlab.blogs.com/following/
Lee Walton -- www.leewalton.com
W.T.L.F.P.A.P.T.O.T.L. -- www.bostonraft.com
Natalie Loveless -- www.loveless.ca
Psy.Geo.Conflux -- glowlab.blogs.com/psygeocon/
The Institute for Applied Autonomy -- www.appliedautonomy.com
Bureau d'Etudes & the Tangential University - utangente.free.fr
Cheryl L'Hirondelle -- www.ndnnrkey.net
The Interventionists@MassMOCA -
http://www.massmoca.org/visual_arts/interventionists.html
Valerie Tevere

I am currently working with Denis Wood to compile a catalog of these
projects, so please email me more if you know of them.

Best,
kanarinka

On Dec 31, 2004, at 12:28 PM, Aileen Derieg wrote:

> Since Coco Fusco first posted her article "Questioning the Frame" to
> the faces list, I have been fascinated by the diversity of responses across
> various different mailing lists. Comparing the different responses from
> different lists, though, something is bothering me.
 <...>


#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net