Neural Issue 33

Interview with Esther Polak in Neural Issue 33 summer 2009

>Interview Esther Polak

One of your first projects was the seminal “Amsterdam Realtime”, which revealed your passion for GPS-based personal maps.

“For me, my fascination for maps sterns from my own very bad sense of direction. l like exploring landscapes and cities very much – and having a reliable map is very important. I find it always very interesting to change maps after a day or two; that is the best way to find out what a specific map does to me.”

The work that properly channelled your interest in GPS technology was undoubtedly “MILKproject”. Did you want to question food economy through a very symbolic case, or more generally to unveil a specific human intervention in natural feeding processes?

“For me it was both. The socio-political[ setting, a context in which the project is often positioned, is basically a powerful artistic material to work with. The socio-political! subjects you mention, like the food-economy or Europe, have a lot of layers of meaning and angles to look at, that I can work and play with.”

Published in Neural Issue 33, summer 2009 >hacktivism p.7