We are very happy to have contributed to the book “From Bits To Paper.
A publication reflecting on the work of contemporary artists who explore the collision between the digital and physical worlds.
By Esther: “During a repetitive walk around the Hakford building in Amsterdam ZO I use Judith Butler’s ideas on the performativity of gender and apply them to the city space, exploring different possibilities of what I call ‘move-categories’ and ‘move-drag’. (open! Platform for Art, Culture & the Public Domain, 17 june 2017)
We are happy to announce that we will premier our walking-essay-film “The City As Performative Object” on April 4 2017 at LIMA Amsterdam.
By Esther and Ivar: “At one point we heard the sound of car wheels on that rural road, and to our surprise we found ourselves staring straight into the lenses of a Google Streetview car. At that moment we knew we were captured. This was the beginning of our first trip into the mirrored world or rather; we fell into it as if tumbling down the rabbit hole.”
By Esther and Ivar: ” In our work, we are not seeking to convince the viewers of the realism of the cartography, the GPS recordings, nor do we wish to immerse them in the cinematographic experience that we create. We use the medium to permit the cartographic quality of Google Earth, and the narrative quality of Google Earth as a theater, to blend.”
At Pixelache 2011 during the “Map me if you will” seminar, a spontaneous remark, a rough idea was thrown into the debate. This idea has been worked out and does not lack provocation.
What are the consequences of GPS-tracks becoming elastic, open for flexible plotting or even radical editing?
After Esther had had her first brainwave for the AmsterdamREALTIME project in 2002 , she did send this text to twenty of her friends. The text describes the initial thoughts on the relevance of digital cartography.