Here Be Dragons

March 26, 2007 1:55 AM

Rebel cartography, postmodern art, or political statement? Nikolas Schiller makes art from satellite/flyover images.
posted by kyleg (6 comments total)

It's interesting stuff, I guess, but upon first examination, this work isn't fitting in useful perceptual pigeonholes for me. As art, maybe, as cartography, less so, and as political statement, meh. Maybe that's due to my own views that maps should be simplified representations of reality, that are more useful for their purpose due to to the effort of simplification put into them, and that maps should never be mistaken for reality. This work challenges that, like ROT13 poetry challenges, oh, I dunno, Russell Simmons.
posted by paulsc at 2:28 AM on March 26, 2007

On their last tour Rush used similar images on their projection screen during Subdivisions.
posted by thrakintosh at 4:34 AM on March 26, 2007

Rebel cartography, postmodern art, or political statement?

Hmmm... I give up. Which is it?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:49 AM on March 26, 2007

There was an excellent segment on last week's Radio 4 show, Law in Action, about the whole issue of Web 2.0 geospatial mash-ups, and the the challenge to Crown Copyright in the form of the Ordinance Survey Maps by people arguing that the lack of access to this data is hindering progress, and finally a look at the real rebel cartographers in the form of the Open Mapping people.

If you're quick, you can still catch the programme on the BBC's website here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/mainframe.shtml?http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/radio4_aod.shtml?radio4/lawinaction
posted by PeterMcDermott at 8:58 AM on March 26, 2007

I can't see my place. . .
posted by pwedza at 11:32 AM on March 26, 2007

Fantastic. Thanks.
posted by dhruva at 9:42 PM on March 26, 2007