2004 Rockefeller New Media Foundation Proposal

Abstract

[familiar relativity] and [tether] are networked computer applications which explore how we consider and visualize physical space. The related projects take the form of both screen-based networked artworks and physical object/design in installation form. GPS and sensing technologies offer the most detailed way to observe social geographies, [familiar relativity] is a networked art project which traces the geographic movements of typical American families through typical days. Using location sensing equipment, the project monitors location as a data-driven reflection of modern life. Watch-size Global Positioning Systems will be worn by five familyparticipants in a range of households (New York, Milwaukee, San Francisco, Minneapolis, suburban Virginia) for a month at a time to generate live data for the work. Users visiting the work in a gallery setting or online will choose how to explore the datasets and compare different data pools. Based on monitoring data and user interaction online and in the gallery setting, the system will create new model forms of housing and transportation routes, [tether] is a site-specific data driven visualization project which examines deeply rooted cultural categories and assumptions through the tactical monitoring of human movement in the large urban and extended suburban area of New York City.