GPS and Photography
Interessante post do The Mobile City, mostrando similaridades entre os monitoramentos de movimento e traçados em mapas com GPS, conhecido como GPS tracking ou GPS drawing, e o processo fotográfico. Em ambos está em jogo atenção ao contexto, a gravação uma situação servindo como suporte à memória, envolvimento local… Vejam trechos do texto de Tijmen Schep acompanhando o trabalho de Esther Polak na Nigéria acompanhando nômades com um GPS:
“(…) GPS tracks are arguably quite similar. They too are a detailed recording of a situation, so just like pictures they should be able to lure us into talking about it’s context, the ‘why’ behind making the track.
And thus we arrive at Esther Polak’s Nomadic Milk project. I am currently travelling through Nigeria with Esther for three weeks, which puts me in a position where I am allowed a close look at the way in which her art takes shape.
Esther records GPS tracks of nomadic people and shows these to them. She does this with a cool little drawing “robot” that draws lines with sand, so that multiple people can view these tracks at the same time, facilitating conversation. It’s this conversation that she’s after. She believes people have an easier time talking about real life if they have an object-to-talk-around. It’s a little like this journey for me: having the excuse of this project really allows me to see the most incredible side of Nigeria. But because I do so in a work context and not in a tourist context I have a way easier time of accepting this, it gives me an excuse to transcend social boundaries. And so do pictures and, in the case of Esther, GPS tracks. (…)”