Friday 16 October 2009

The Map Is Not The Territory

This post is a project for the University of Edinburgh's 'Digital Cultures' course, a part of the MsC in e-learning

Best viewed by clicking on the 'View in a larger map' option.


View Visual Artefact in a larger map

9 comments:

Sian Bayne said...

Love this Damien. For me the link is to the Borges story Baudrillard references in Simulacra and Simulation (On exactitude in science http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Exactitude_in_Science) in which the map scaled a mile to one mile becomes inseparable from the territory it apparently represents. Which leaves me with the reading of your artefact that social media - or your own digital landscape - is now inseparable from non-mediated representations or engagements with the Damien-world.

But Russia? What's that all about?!

Damien DeBarra said...

LOL. Thanks Sian.

Russian thing: my original idea was to create my own map (using an online fantasy map generator for D&D games), load it in to UMapper and then go from there. Problem is, UMapper doesn't allow for embedding of videos in location markers, so off to an obscure corner of Russia it was.

Must say I'm slightly disturbed b the thought of 'Damien World'...

diceman said...

Wonderful collection of clips, Damien. I'm happy to report that Google Maps behaved properly. Although Cyberia and Cyburbia are too depressing places to live in the Damien World, I wouldn't mind giving Deadwood a try.

Bill Babouris

Nicola Osborne said...

I really enjoyed watching these - although Facebook Manners wasn't appearing/playing for me so I'll have to seek that out another time. I was also intrigued by the strange CNN piece with the visuals at war with the content - talking about Twitter without showing it BUT constantly shifting view to an electronic map of Iran as the camera bored of Clay and the presenters.

Something about seeing Twitter in Real Life made me instantly think about the public timeline on AudioBoo (http://audioboo.fm) - very much an audio twitter in a way but the team behind the site just listens to them come in like radio which must be as surreal as that Twitter clip.

btw I like the mapping pun (if I've understood correctly) ;)

Unknown said...

Savage, exciting, vibrant, realistic and amusing. Collage wasn't like this in my day...
Armchair Critic: Dystopic News

Sian Bayne said...

I think having to use a map of a 'real' space adds to the piece in the end Damien - it makes it a really interesting act of virtual 'colonisation' of this corner of Russia, and an even more intriguing comment on the relation of 'cyberia' to 'real' geographies and the awkward power relations involved.

Damien DeBarra said...

Yeah, maybe it does Sian. The notion that you can only talk about the virtual in reference to the real and can only attempt a visual representation of something with recourse to heavily textual representation might say something.

Must say I'm quite surprised by how much some folks seem to like this. I really thought I was wildly off the track with this.

lesley said...

Hi Damien....in one word - awesome!!
Dystopia, Utopia and Deadwood. I wonder how you mught categorise Deadwood? or does this require a whole new category?

Also interesting that you associate certain types of behaviours with dystopia and utopia.

brilliant!!

Damien DeBarra said...

Thanks!