Artist Statement
On GPS-Drawings
Written by
Tristan D. Grey
Published
09th January 2012
‘ the city as a palimpsest ’
Tristan D. Grey,
Artist
We always carry around with us mental maps of the spaces we have experienced throughout our lifetime. The displayed GPS-drawings, as a result of my walks through the different cities, form some type of mnemonic device, establishing a learning technique that aids and constitutes memory. In contrast to the maps we are used to looking at, the resulting maps are subjective representations of spatial experience and, therefore, much closer to our memory.
Tracking is a technique to record and visualise the path an object leaves behind through space and time, utilising a GPS device. Starting in 2011, I began to track my trails through the urban fabric of the cities I inhabited and/or visited, namely London, Berlin, Paris, and New York City.
As a result, the experience of wandering the city seems to be far more focused and palpable in return, each line representing a different story one can recall – the city as a palimpsest, helping to form a clearer image of its underlying fabric, revitalising the tradition of the Flaneur, as described by Walter Benjamin, upgraded for a new technological age as well as being influenced by the Situationists around Guy Debord and books like Kevin Lynch's ‘The Image of the City’.
For a video animation of the GPS-drawings of the first four cities, London, Berlin, Paris, and New York City, please visit the following link to watch on vimeo TRACKING London/Berlin/Paris/NewYorkCity.
