G is for Geologic
You are here. Where? Mobile maneuvering and on-demand navigation has enabled civilian cartographers everywhere to create new maps of our world. Whether it’s experimental geographers using mashups like Flickr or Google Earth, or “machinamators” altering the aesthetics of the gaming terrain, landscapes are now environments of interaction. While our media ecologies serve to dimensionalize our sense of place, the graffiti-reminiscent move to tag the journey is also occurring, ranging from digital post-it notes and sticky shadows that direct our sight-seeing adventures initiated by companies such as Yellow Arrow and Socialight respectively, to psychogeographers such as Christina Kubisch, Soundwalk and Neurotransmitter that use soundscapes to explore the invisible topography of space. As alternative topologies are laid upon our real geography, it’s certain that our role as geological agents needs to be reconsidered. The phrase is, “geography is destination, and destination is on-the-way.” May “oh the places you will go” whether virtual or real, be beautiful.