C5 Landscape Projects Field Mediation

The C5 Landscape Projects Field Mediation January 12th, 2003

UTM
10 S 0589631
4145735

DMS
N 37 deg., 27' 24.1"
W 121 deg., 59' 33.5"

In 2001, C5 initiated a series of projects involving mapping, navigation and search of the landscape using GIS (Global Information Systems). The projects are designed to take place over the next 3 years and are an extension of C5's research of database visualization, networks and cooperative systems. The Landscape Projects examine the changing conception of the Landscape as we move from the aesthetics of representation to those of database and interface.

On January 12th 2003, C5 conducts the first in a series of on-site field mediations for presentation of research and theoretical agendas informing the Landscape Projects.

Over the past decade the instrumentation necessary for creating a detailed mapping of the earth's surface from space has become a reality. The USGS (United States Geological Survey) together with NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a host of international governmental and non-governmental partners are moving towards a complete indexing of the earth's surface destined to better than one meter of resolution. Location, navigation, tracking, mapping and timing within the landscape points to a re-conceptualization of the environment and our interaction with it. Like the human genome, the scope and implication this endeavor points to tremendous social, political and economic considerations. Technology transfer from GIS research activities incorporates new data products such as those in environmental studies including strategic management of resources and hazards and disaster analysis. New discourses and disciplines have emerged around topics such as interactive mapping and archeological geophysics. Combined with Spatial Data Systems and GPS (Global Positioning System) postures an entirely new relationship with the Landscape that takes form in applications for simulation, surveillance, resource allocation and management of cooperative networks. It is in this context that the C5 Landscape Projects are conceived.

The first in the project series, Analogous Landscapes, was exhibited at the 2002 II International Art Biennial-Buenos Aires Museo Nacional de Bellas.

Joel Slayton, Brett Stalbaum, Geri Wittig, Steve Durie, Jan Ekenberg, Jack Toolin, Lisa Jevbratt, Anne-Marie Schleiner, Bruce Gardner