CYNTHIA VERSPAGET

Self Surveillance & Creating New Terrains. 2004

sinderworld/terrasinda 2002  played with the ideas of self imposed surveillance and augmented space in the making...the making of digital songlines that map and claim land as it is travelled.

The 2004 exploration of Sinderwrold/TerraSinda included the viewers ability to add to mountainous regions simply by exploring the virtual world and leaving footprints. The 'footprint data' was then manually updated by me to visually reflect other peoples traversions.  As viewers visited particular sites more than others, mountains either became higher (as with my initial feedback via GPS) or reduced, undoing the land mass "work" that I had created in my own travels. Location markers were lost, terrain became chaotic and dislocated - after all that is 'the virtual'.  The viewers were watched, and the sites they explore noted. New  terrains were created.


The As the viewer or 'player' altered the terrain, it became less and less relative to the real and less connected to terrasinda.  So are virtual creations shared or are they personal? Terrasinda was a map of where I had been, a virtual space and a reflection real personal events and spaces, only relative to my own journey. Where are you in all of this virtual creation, you are a part of it, I am a part of it. Do we literally or metaphorically share the journey?  My world may no longer exist after you are done.

I watch you as you make your mark.

 

This project supported and sponsored by: ArtsWA, BEAPWORKS and OmniStar FUGRO