Locative Media Reflection

Locative Media has given me many new ways of looking at space. From early projects that dealt with creating one’s own personal space, to my further research into the use of space for recreational use, commerce, information, and as many other uses of space as can be imagined. Similar to adding layers in Photoshop, we can use space in as many different ways as we want rather than limiting ourselves to experiencing places in only one way.
I had some previous experience in Locative technology before this course, but I had no idea how rich the potential for artwork in this field is. Being a skateboarder, I use roadmaps with skate spots already marked out, I have used google earth to search for watersheds, empty pools, and other potential skate-spots from above. I had even thought of the possibility (if I had an iPhone) of taking already geo-tagged photos of every skate spot in San Francisco so I’d only have to look at my map application to see where the nearest skate spots were no matter my location in the city. Previously all of my use of GPS technology was purely for function, I had never considered all of the artistic possibilities that GPS enables. From my first project of creating a set of instructions for a derive on campus, I began to see how many different things are possible with maps. When we received our first GPS units to track our paths, I thought of how a person's path can be an art piece. I imagined picking out multiple points in the city that made a shape, someone wearing a GPS unit could travel to each of these points in succession and make that shape. I'd be interested to see how a path that was initially thought of as a straight line looked when the person had to take city streets to get there, or if they took public transportation.

When our class visited KQED earlier in the semester I was given my first chance to use MScape and have a GPS guided user-experience. Although there were technical problems with the units (I still haven't been too succesfull with MScape) I was able to imagine the different possibilities that this could provide. The idea of creating a game that would transform any space into a completely different area with audio narration. Like the GPS guided cars that provide information about the different areas of San Francisco, similar GPS guides could be worn around Italy or Paris giving the person wearing it information about the architecture and art where they're at. Not even just the art, but the user experience could be customized to whomever. If I visited Italy and there was a GPS program informing me of the different skate spots I'd be thrilled! If someone wanted to relive the DaVinci code in Paris they could... Another project that interested me was the idea of mapping a city by steepness of the streets for my downhill skateboarding. Mapmyrun.com does an excellent job of calculating elevation and steepness of streets, to assemble all of this information onto a physical map would be beautiful. We can look at spaces in different ways as to appreciate how that space may be used differently. As artists, we like to see things in an aesthetically pleasing way, through this lens of GPS we can see any space as beautiful. As i mention in my research paper, the space underneath Burnside Bridge in Portland was one of the city's dirtiest, most crime-ridden areas. Skateboarders re-appropriated this space and made it their own by pouring concrete and building a skatepark. What was once a negative thing in the city of Portland became a great place for recreation and artistic expression, and its still there today after nearly 20 years.

In conclusion, the world of Locative Media is a rich field of art to come, like web-art, we use something designed for war to make something beautiful. The practical uses of GPS are vast, as are the artistic uses. Being able to re-define every area that we pass through opens up the world. Places are never the same, one can walk down the street one day but when they walk down the same street the next day it won't quite be the same. I've learned to appreciate the infinite possibilities of the world and GPS will help me continue to think outside the box.