plot this concept: 1to1 -- Keyhole Memory / Mediated Psychocartography

plot this concept: 1to1 – Keyhole Memory / Mediated Psychocartography


PRECEDENCES:
Confessional poetry. Geocaching.


TECHNOLOGY:
Google bought the Keyhole satellite photography database and made it
Google Maps. MSN has something similar called Virtual Earth. In
some areas of the world, the google map set is more detailed; in
other areas, the MSN mapset is more detailed. Now there's a cool
flash interface that combines both: http://flashearth.com (by Paul
Neave). You can bookmark and save specific locations as discrete
URLs. The cool thing about flashearth is, unlike MSN Virtual Earth
and Google Maps, there's no search field. So you can't just type in
the name of the location. You have to start macro and zoom in
manually. It requires a bit of visual recognition and spatial
cognition. You "feel" your way there and in so doing you get a
haptic sense of where "there" is in relationship to "everywhere else."


CONCEPT:
Memory is intrinsically tied to location. Now via flashearth I can
access my personal "memory locations" from on high. I can then
connect each location with its correspondent memory by posting a
discrete URL of the location with a text description of the memory.
Others can access my locational memories, "surf them," then post
their own.

Because flashearth is a database, when I post the discrete URL of a
memory location, I'm not just sharing a static satellite image of
that location; I'm sharing a locational node which is connected in
context to a database of the whole world. The reader of my post is
thus able to navigate the areas surrounding my locational node, and
contextualize my location with other locations in her personal
history/memory.


INSTRUCTIONS:
A.
Acquire a URL ( psychocartography.org ) and set up a guestbook
structure with the following requisite form fields where anyone can
post:
1. The URL of their location from flashearth.com
2. The real world name of the location (where and what it is)
3. The date of the memory associated with the location (may be a date
range. may be subjectively described.)
4. A brief description of what that location means to the person in
terms of their personal memory (may include events, people, moods,
etc.)
5. Optional: URL of any collateral online material that would
supplement or enrich the memory (could be text, photographs, video,
audio, etc.)

These posts can take several forms:
1. They can be straightforward and autobiographical ("this is out
back of the circle K in Detroit where I kissed Jane Harlowe for the
first time. We were both 13.")
2. They can be downright cryptic and totally personal (almost like
notes to one's self).
3. They can be fantastical/fictional ("this is the winter palace
floating on a man-made lake in Beijing where I gazed into the lotus
pond as a young girl.")

Discourage generic tourist posts ("this is where I saw the eiffel
tower/pyramids/mt. rushmore"), unless there is some more interesting
personal/idiosyncratic memory involved.

Or,
B.
simply post your own location/memory combinations at any online
listserv or bulletin board and ask people to respond with their own
posts. (That's what I'm doing here.)


CALL FOR PARTICIPATION:
Feel free to respond with your own location/memory combinations.


SAMPLE POST:
Here are a few actual location/memories from my life:
[note, the URLs may get split in half in the web version of this
post. Just paste them back together.]

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat5.472465&lon=-82.804411&z.7&r=0&src=0
Dutch Cove, North Carorlina | winter 2005
The gap between our cove and Cruso, the town beyond. This winter,
when the brush has died back, I aim to hike over this pass. (cf:
http://computerfinearts.com/collection/cloninger/bubblegum/place/dutchcove/
)

2.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=-23.561252&lon=-46.6558&z.5&r=0&src=0
Sao Paulo, Brazil | 2004
Gallery where I stared at that Bosch painting for so long. (cf:
http://computerfinearts.com/collection/cloninger/bubblegum/picture/bosch/
)

3.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat1.778081&lon5.234522&z.4&r=0&src=0
Jerusalem, Israel, Western Wall | 2004
Prayed for unknown things in tongues.

4.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat0.536877&lon=-87.905523&z.3&r=0&src=0
Fairhope, Alabama, Seminole Ave. Beach | the year I met Julie
Bayfront beach down the road from my rental house. Dancing in the
moonlight alone.

5.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat0.696654&lon=-88.096533&z&r=0&src=1
Mobile, Alabama, Baxter Ave. House | Caroline's first three years
Began playdamage.

6.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat0.69716&lon=-88.131897&z.2&r=0&src=2
Mobile, Alabama, Wilmer Hall Orphanage, Murray Cottage | 1991
4 days on, 3 days off as a house parent. Good memories of us all
gathered around singing "Romans 16:19" with Zach playing drums on the
garbage can.

7.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat0.701192&lon=-88.135445&z&r=0&src=1
Mobile, Alabama, Mary B. Austin Elementary, Old Ann (oak tree) | 4th grade
Kicked off of the safety patrol for tree-climbing.

8.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat0.701977&lon=-88.15638&z.1&r=0&src=2
Mobile, Alabama, woods behind our house on N. Carmel Drive | High School
He is there and He is not silent.

9.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat5.21119&lon=-85.927273&z.8&r=0&src=0
Sewanee, Tennessee, The Dairy | college
Mysterious, fragrant days. All invitation and promise; Cocteau Twins
soundtrack.

10.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat0.219469&lon=-92.027814&z&r=0&src=0
Lafayette, Louisiana, Maw Maw + Paw Paw's swimming pool | childhood
Dad flipping Andy and me high up in the air. "Stay balled up. 1, 2,
3…" (cf:
http://computerfinearts.com/collection/cloninger/bubblegum/place/lafayette/
)

11.
http://www.flashearth.com/?latH.004443&lon=-114.243945&z.2&r=0&src=2
Lakeside, Montana | 1993
Read the book of Isaiah aloud in six hours. At the very end of the
last chapter it started to rain. (cf:
http://lab404.com/plotfracture/whorl/memory/mt/road.jpg )

12.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat.71537&lon=-64.736149&z.3&r=0&src=0
St. Croix, US Virgin Islands | 1992
Walked around the perimeter of the island in 4 days. (cf:
http://lab404.com/plotfracture/whorl/memory/mt/flag.jpg )

13.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat6.727087&lon=-80.79148&z.8&r=0&src=2
Carroll County, Virginia, Joy Ranch Boys & Girls Home | 1994
My first teaching job. X marks the spot of the storage room where
there was an upright piano on which I wrote this song for my wife the
year before we met:
http://www.lab404.com/audio/no_one_knows/you_have_ravished_my_heart.mp3

14.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat.196044&lon=-100.138459&z.1&r=0&src=0
Valle de Bravo, Mexico | 2003
The Rose of Jericho and Bougainvillea (cf:
http://computerfinearts.com/collection/cloninger/bubblegum/place/valle/
)

15.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat4.30351&lon=-83.82345&z.5&r=0&src=2
Gainesville, Georgia, Brenau University Women's Center | courting Julie
I would stay here when I went to visit Julie while she was in
college. We would watch videos, eat snacks, sit on the couch in the
commons room, and be glad.

16.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat2.065684&lon=-84.921433&z.4&r=0&src=2
Providence Canyon, Georgia, outside of Eufaula, Alabama | right
before my job at Integrity Music
Before we had kids, back when Julie and I used to go stay at Alabama
state parks for fun. I was between jobs and very depressed looking
into this big gorge. Soundtrack: The Verve's "Urban Hymns." (cf:
http://gastateparks.org/content/georgia/parks/parkphotos/providence.jpg
)

17.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat0.536523&lon=-87.490501&z.4&r=0&src=2
Styx River, Alabama | growing up
Sandbar where Dad and I camped in cold weather, where I first looked
at the moon through his glasses, saw details I hadn't seem before,
and realized I also needed glasses. (cf:
http://computerfinearts.com/collection/cloninger/bubblegum/place/juniper/
)

18.
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat5.409731&lon=-82.85969&z.5&r=0&src=2
Cold Mountain, Shining Rock Wilderness, North Carolina | 2003
There's no through road.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

yours,
curt