Close Up at a Distance – Mapping, Technology, and Politics

Laura Kurgan

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Paperback

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English

Zone Books
14 February 2023

Architectural structure & design; Politics & government; Cartography, map-making & projections; Geographical information systems (GIS) & remote sensing; Regional & area planning

Maps poised at the intersection of art, architecture, activism, and geography trace a profound shift in our understanding and experience of space.

The maps in this book are drawn with satellites, assembled with pixels radioed from outer space, and constructed from statistics; they record situations of intense conflict and express fundamental transformations in our ways of seeing and of experiencing space. These maps are built with Global Positioning Systems (GPS), remote sensing satellites, or Geographic Information Systems (GIS): digital spatial hardware and software designed for such military and governmental uses as reconnaissance, secrecy, monitoring, ballistics, the census, and national security. Rather than shying away from the politics and complexities of their intended uses, in Close Up at a Distance Laura Kurgan attempts to illuminate them. Poised at the intersection of art, architecture, activism, and geography, her analysis uncovers the implicit biases of the new views, the means of recording information they present, and the new spaces they have opened up.

Her presentation of these maps reclaims, repurposes, and discovers new and even inadvertent uses for them, including documentary, memorial, preservation, interpretation, political, or simply aesthetic. GPS has been available to both civilians and the military since 1991; the World Wide Web democratized the distribution of data in 1992; Google Earth has captured global bird's-eye views since 2005. Technology has brought about a revolutionary shift in our ability to navigate, inhabit, and define the spatial realm. The traces of interactions, both physical and virtual, charted by the maps in Close Up at a Distance define this shift.

By: Laura Kurgan
Imprint: Zone Books
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 228mm, Width: 186mm, Spine: 17mm
Weight: 488g
ISBN: 9781942130789
ISBN 10: 1942130783
Pages: 232
Publication Date: 14 February 2023
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Reviews for Close Up at a Distance – Mapping, Technology, and Politics

""In terms of the overall implications of Kurgan’s work there is a sense in which, to paraphrase Marshall McLuhan, the method is the message."" * Environments and Planning D: Society and Space * ""Situated between art, architecture, and geography, Kurgan illustrates that actual research through practice can be as radically critical as it is projective."" * Constructs *