Friday, September 5, 2008

Locating the State

A brief, but interesting discussion about locative media was launched by Paul Miller (aka DJ Spooky) on Nettime recently. Basically, it started with a reposting of a story from the NY Times about the use of vehicle GPS systems to prosecute criminals in the US. The discussion then moved through the problematics of location information as a personal data set, not unlike biometric data. How does satellite-generated information linking identity and geography become another form of biometric data - another institutional representation of personhood in the archives of biopower?
On a lighter note, Miller also pointed to a mobile walking project hosted by Yellow Arrow, one of the most widely known locative media projects. Surprisingly, we hadn't seen this specific project - Capitol of Punk, a mobile documentary video work that looks at the geography and history of the Washington DC punk and hardcare scene. Some great, brief edited interviews with folks like Ian MacKaye, Ian Svenonius and Allison Wolfe.