EVERYWHERE FOR GOING: MAPPING

LANDSCAPE PERCEPTION THROUGH

PSYCHOGEOGRAPHIC SPATIAL INTERACTION

Belem Z. Lett BFA Hons

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Fine Arts by Research

University of New South Wales College of Fine Arts

July 2012

1 ORIGINALITY STATEMENT

‘I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no materials previously published or written by another person, or substantial proportions of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at UNSW or any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in the thesis. Any contribution made to the research by others, with whom I have worked at UNSW or elsewhere, is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis. I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project's design and conception or in style, presentation and linguistic expression is acknowledged.’

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2 COPYRIGHT STATEMENT

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4 Table of Contents

THESIS DIAGRAM 7

PREFACE 9

INTRODUCTION 10

PHASE ONE: MEMORY 14 SHIFT ONE – FUNCTIONAL PERCEPTION 15 PART ONE – SIGHT AND SEEING 15 PART TWO – VISUAL PERCEPTION 16 PART THREE – REMEMBER REMEMBER 17 SHIFT TWO- CONSTRUCTING THE LANDSCAPE 20 PART ONE – WILD WORLD 20 PART TWO – VIRTUALLY MEMORY 22 PART THREE – RE-VIEWING THE LANDSCAPE 23 SHIFT THREE – REPRESENTED 25 PART ONE – LANDSCAPE AND MEMORY 25 PART TWO – TRACKING/TRACING 27 PART THREE – KLEE 29

PHASING MEMORY TO PRACTICE 32 PRACTICE AND MEMORY 33

PHASE TWO: SPACE 38 SHIFT ONE – PHYSICAL SPACE 39 PART ONE - TRADING SPACES 39 PART TWO - MULTIPLICITY 41 PART THREE – WHAT MATTERS 42 SHIFT TWO - QUESTIONABLE SPACE 45 PART ONE – THREE STANDARD STOPPAGES 45 PART TWO - CITY RE-VIEW 46 PART THREE - MONOLITHIC SPACE 49 SHIFT THREE - RECONFIGURED 51 PART ONE - CUTTING SPACE 51 PART TWO – WALL SPACE 54 PART THREE - PHYSICAL PAINTING 56

PHASING SPACE TO PRACTICE 59 PRACTICE AND SPACE 61

PHASE THREE: MAPPING 66 SHIFT ONE – IN RE-VIEW 67 PART ONE – OLD MAP 67 PART TWO – VIRTUAL WORLD 70 PART THREE – FOLDING UP 71 SHIFT TWO – PSYCHO-MAPPING 73 PART ONE – TRACING GPS 73 PART TWO - THE TRAVELLER 75 PART THREE - A NEW WORLD VIEW 77

5 SHIFT THREE – RECOLLECTED 79 PART ONE - CONSTANT 79 PART TWO – SHIFTING TOPOGRAPHIES 81 PART THREE – MAPPING TODAY 85

PHASING MAPPING TO PRACTICE 88

PRACTICE AND MAPPING 90

CONCLUSION 97

IMAGE LIST 98

BIBLIOGRAPHY 106

6 Thesis Diagram

Concept: This Diagram models an experimental, research based, artistic practice. The Traditional chapters of a thesis are replaced by the three phases, Memory, Space and Mapping, which form three interrelated positions from which my work has evolved. The areas where the circles in this diagram overlap visualize the point where seemingly disparate elements of practice begin to merge within the mind. These points of cross over are visualised in the overlapping circles between the parts, the shifts and the phases. The various parts filter back, through this diagram, into the central core of artistic practice, visualised as the triangle, from which artwork is produced.

7 Each phase posits a presiding concept from which the three corresponding shifts are examined. Each Shift furthers this examination through three conceptual Parts. The mirrored structure of each phase creates a framework which positions each part as being able to be read from within the context of corresponding parts, within the other phases. Finally the triangular centre is where the artist stands considering the swirling mass of information from which artistic practice emerges. Consider the diagram as a map, which you are able to physically interact with. Walk through each circle encountering, as I do through a contemporary psycho-geographic disposition, encountering the parts of information, which inform my practice.

8 Preface

Our sensorial perception of a reality is the basis for our interaction and understanding of the world. The bombardment of visual, sensory information encountered is interpreted and ordered into sensible digestible information from ‘within the brain’ (Smith 2005, p. 46). Exploration of the processes involved in spatial interaction, memory and recollection of space inevitably leads to questioning the nature of our reality and our ideology surrounding spatial construction. In contemporary society we have constructed environments that systematically remove us from the so- called natural world while ever increasingly surrounding ourselves within a concrete space. Furthermore the emergence of virtual mapping has radically shifted our perception of the world.

The term landscape, in the historic naturalistic sense encountered within this thesis, is taken as a departure point from which memories are constructed. This coupled with emerging theories in physics, on the very nature of space and matter, creates a context in which reality itself seems to exist in a state of multiple spatial ambiguity. This ambiguity is important in that our conceptualization and visualization of this concept temporally has wide implications for the layering of visual information within artistic abstraction. The term contemporary landscape is a phenomenon applied to the broad spectrum of landscape based abstraction and experimentation, which exists today. I am applying this term, contemporary landscape to artistic practice, which investigates aesthetic spatial interpretation. Spatial is used in the sense of the perceived reality which we interact and conceptualise within physics. As such the following questions are raised within my practice.

What role does perception and memory play in our understanding of the landscape — as a historically layered construct — within the exploratory context of contemporary landscape practice?

How is psychogeographic spatial exploration — based upon a historic understanding of this terminology — repositioned within contemporary culture, through evolving definitions of space in theoretical physics, rapidly emerging spatial technology and the visualisation of this information within artistic practice? 9

What impact does the concept of mapping — positioned historically as a scientific depiction of topographical environments — have upon our sense of space, when we interact with the world as explorers, traversing unfamiliar terrain, in an ever increasingly globalized and imaged world?

Introduction

This thesis is structured so as to reflect my integration of theory and practice. The structure of my practice is experimental, poetic and critically reflective. As such a traditional thesis structure has been set aside in place of an experimental structure, which places the reader within the context of exploratory contemporary psychogeography. The concept of my practice, and as such this thesis, is derived from the notion of a psychogeograpic dérive as a means of re-viewing and questioning contemporary landscape practice. The exploratory nature of the dérive is inbuilt as much within the meandering structure of this thesis as it is within my intuitive and reflective works which the reader shall encounter throughout this thesis.

Psycho-geography is described as being ‘the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, whether consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals’ (Debord 1955, p. 1 of 4). While a dérive is ‘[a] mode of experimental behavior linked to the conditions of urban society: a technique of rapid passage through varied ambiances. The term also designates a specific uninterrupted period of dériving’ (Debord 1958, p. 1 of 2). This concept is carried throughout this thesis in the structured encounters with parts of information.

The contemporary dérive is informed by the encountered theories, concepts and artworks, which are diagrammatically laid out for the reader to explore. The dérive is used here to reposition the landscape concept which can be defined within a contemporary context as ambiguous aesthetic space, interpreted by both the individual artist and viewer. Thus the literary dérive becomes a metaphor for the relationship between physical and temporal modes of artistic practice. The contemporary landscape

10 exists today as a singular description of the multiple spatial interpretations, which exist for the historically layered concept of the landscape.

I have looked towards the historical concept of the landscape within nature as a space “othered” in its constructed antithesis to the similarly conceptually constructed, urban city space. I have done so to iterate, within the parts, historic concepts of the landscape so as to be better able to show how previous interpretations inform contemporary concepts of the contemporary landscape.

However I shall not attempt a historical account of the vast multifaceted development of the term landscape and its tradition within art as a visual language emerging from within Dutch, German and English traditions; of the sublime, romanticism and the picturesque. They are mentioned here so as to simply acknowledge their existence as historically informing previous concepts of the landscape. The landscape is covered to such an extent historically, (Schama 1995), that to abbreviate its contents would take the entirety of the following pages at least, and serve not so much as a context for the work as an act in meta narrative revision surrounding the term landscape.

I shall explore the contemporary landscape through the three main phases of Memory, Space and Mapping. The phases shall meander through perceptual shifts taking place, as encountered through the work of certain artists, philosophers and scientists such as Picasso, Einstein, Schama, Deleuze, Duchamp, Bradford and experiments taking place at the Large Hadron Collider, bringing together thousands of physicists from around the globe.

I shall point to various aspects of reality, from its perception through our senses, the computer screen and virtual mapping to spatial questioning and interaction. Thus contextualising shifts in artistic spatial understanding, over time, in regard to their impact upon our perception and depiction of space. This shall be done through relating emerging technologies, elements of science/science fiction and artistic experimentation as fields inherently tied together, yet separated notionally today.

The parts interacted with in this thesis set up a frame work from which my artistic practice has emerged. The parts encountered have been researched and developed in a

11 virtual and physical spatial dérive. This is the result of extended periods of travel in Europe during 2011-2012. As the recipient of the Brett Whiteley Travelling art scholarship I received funding for a residency at the Cite Internationale des Arts in conjunction with travel throughout Europe. This led to physical encounters with previously only virtually experienced artworks and environments, which are utilized within this thesis as catalysts for critical, artistic spatial reflection, which occurs within the daily psychogeographic derive.

The physical navigation of unfamiliar terrain manifested a parallel mental derive which in turn was manifested within the act of artistic creation where one Part or another, of any aspect of this thesis, would rise and fall as it bubbled to the conscious surface of perception. I propose that these various forms of spatial traversal, all impact on my memory of space, and are equally integral in their impact upon the spatial abstraction occurring within my practice.

I shall discuss the shifting nature of geographic representation and theoretical physics propositions on the nature of space. This will form a parallel dialogue in which these developments provide the context for spatial ambiguity shifting our perception of the world.

Contemporaneously an engagement with psychogeographic space will be shown as a proliferating approach and expanding field of reference in artists practice today. Steeped in a sensory meandering and physical interaction with place, this artistic visualisation arises as much from memory as it does from specific collection of data derived from perceptual interaction with the world.

As such the act of meandering, reacting to visual stimuli as a means of perceptual exploration, is paralleled in the meandering through information presented within this thesis. The diagrams structure visualises physical interaction with the contemporary landscape that reveals the interconnected relationship with the literary theoretical practice. The reader shall encounter the information laid out through each phase as separate perceptual encounters tied together through the overarching investigation. At the conclusion of each phase the link to artistic practice shall be made through examples of my work.

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The first phase is called memory. This phase shall investigate the notion of sensory perception as a data collection tool, which constructs our memories through multiple sources of information. The contemporary landscape shall be shown, as a concept, to be built up through interaction, in time, with various visual, conceptual, and theoretical propositions, which redefine the concept of landscape as being a place built up within the mind and visualized within various artistic practice.

The second phase is called space. In this phase propositions are encountered, which have radically shifted our understanding of physical space. Each proposition shall be located within the context of a constantly shifting and evolving understanding of theoretical physics, theoretical architecture and city spaces and the role of the artist within these concepts.

The third phase is called mapping. Within this phase the contemporary landscape is viewed and constructed as a mapped terrain. The maps role as a tool of landscape abstraction, within literature, art and virtual mapping technologies, shall be uncovered in various locations. The proliferation of the global traveler shall be located as an individual able to both travel physically and virtually around the world. The map shall be used to reveal various data collection processes, which, in their visualization within artists practice, inform abstract knowledge and further construct the contemporary landscape as a spatially ambiguous terrain.

This thesis invites the reader to step into the world of artist practice through the three overarching phases of investigation. This practice is an exploratory one, which questions the perception and representation of the contemporary landscape in the context of it being an ambiguous concept used to define an abstract aesthetic space in a state of constant flux.

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Phase One: Memory

Artistic practice is multifaceted. The first phase, memory mirrors the various facets through layers of perceptual interaction. To understand Memory, Space and Mapping, in relation to practice, these concepts are separated into three Phases. The decision to structure three Phases with three Shifts and three Parts was made in order to create a diagrammatic system of interaction. This thesis positions each Phase within the context of the next so as to be able to say that each piece of information was placed within one Phase but it may be placed and read from within another.

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Shift One – Functional Perception

Movement, navigation and interaction with our surroundings is made possible through the use of the senses. It is from this sensory perception that people create visual representations and abstractions of our physical and conceptual understanding of a reality. I shall firstly look at the functionality of the visual system in order to articulate the physical processes, which occur from when we first sight, perceive, create memories and then remember.

Part One – Sight and Seeing

When undertaking psycho-geographic meanderings the primordial beginning, of sighted experience, begins as light enters our eyes. This process of visual perception can be summarised as follows; the transparent cornea allows light rays to enter the globe and, by refraction, helps bring these light rays into focus on the retina. The neural tissue of the retina, by complex biomechanical processes, changes light energy into a signal that can be transmitted along a neural pathway. The signal passes through the retina, exits the eye through the optic nerve, and is transmitted to various parts of the brain for processing (Remington 2011).

The eye acts as a portal through which information travels to the brain. Thus it is known that ‘[w] e see with the brain not the eyes’ (Bach-y-Rita et al. 2003, p. 285). Sight is the construction of the image within the brain, an interpretation of visual information, which calls into question what is selected and how we decide what is relevant information. The perception of the image relies on memory, learning, contextual

15 interpretation, cultural, and other social factors that are probably exclusively human characteristics (ibid.) .

The mind’s construction of the world is posited within the assumption that there is an external reality. Descartes, in Shlain, (2007, p. 21) implies that reality is more than a construction of the mind through the assertion that reality is ‘split into the purely mental “in here” of our consciousness from the objective world of “out there” and declared these two realms inviolably separate’. The contemporary landscape is one such construction of the “out there” world, from the “in here”.

The "othering" of a reality, as it exists within mind, from a separate tangible one “out there” is important in that it gives us a position from which to start to question personal assumptions about reality. Seemingly objective appraisals of the world are then, by virtue of the senses, limited through perceptual capacity and inherently perceived from within a subjective “in here” context. This draws a line of inquiry through which the conceptual development of the landscape is simply a perceptual construction “in here” of an “out there” world.

Part Two – Visual Perception

Perception arises from the immediacy with which we process visual information. The processes through which we recognize objects flows from the general to the detailed (Arnheim 2004, p. 45). We recognize the basic form of things in a geometric sense and then associate this form with a function before we recognize each individual component, which makes up this objectification of reality

This innate system, of recognizing objects rather than indeterminate parts, is unfolded within Gestalt theories of perception. ‘Gestalt’ can be translated as ‘shape’ or ‘form’, and Gestalt psychologists believed that the laws of perceptual organization are innate and cause us to perceive things as a whole rather than a series of separate items (Hardy and Heyes 2000, p. 22). The deconstruction of objects into separate parts then becomes a conscious act.

16 When looking on any particular setting, perceived data passes through an associative process of recognition. Bachelard speaks of our innate associative nature with reference to personally experienced space. Using the example of the home as one which we carry with us, in turn affecting each subsequent experience of a similar space (Bachelard 1994, p. 4).

When looking at the landscape the process of recognition can be articulated in a similar manner: -

If we leave the world of well-defined, man made shapes and look at a real landscape, what do we see? Perhaps a rather chaotic mess of trees and brushwood. Some tree trunks, branches going in different directions, to which the eyes can cling. A fairly comprehensible sphere or cone shape, a texture of leafy green, but there is much we are unable to grasp. It is only that the confused panorama can be seen as a configuration of clear-cut directions, sizes, geometric shapes, colours, or textures that it can be said to be truly perceived (Arnheim 2004, p. 46).

The use of the term “real landscape” within this context would seem to be a tautology in in that the landscape is an “in here” construction of an “out there” space. However the landscape, in the historic understanding of the term within painting, is constructed twofold. Firstly the landscape, in terms of it being a “natural” or “wild” space is one we have multiple physical experiences of interacting with. Secondly we then use his term landscape in reference to our repeated conceptual reconstruction of what we deem natural space to be. This naturalistic perception of the landscape is “othered” from the city through the application of the term urban landscape. There then proceeds to be an “out there” reality containing various layers of perceptual and conceptual engagement.

Part Three – Remember Remember

After we sight then perceive the following step is to recall. This process is made possible through memory, which is commonly known to have two forms. The first being short-term memory or working memory, whose functionality was posited, by George miller in 1956 as having the capacity to store up to several pieces of information

17 (Weiten 2007, p. 210). Subsequent research, has led to a reduction in this number to a three-component model of working memory (Baddeley 2003, p. 830).

The second, and inherently more complicated, is long-term memory, which is supposedly able to store unlimited information indefinitely (Weiten 2007, p. 211). Cohen and Conway (2008) site 10 separate types of memory and remembering. These fall into categorical foundations based on specific situational, personal and information factors. In overview the chapters, specific to types of memory include; everyday memory, autobiographical, eyewitness, planning, navigation, knowledge, text, social and, thoughts and dreams. In effect a categorical system into which fit memories for the various facets of life.

In Edward de Bono’s work Mechanism of the mind, (1990) memory is described as acting and being activated on a series of layers or memory surfaces. These surfaces act to both collate, substantiate, edit and correlate new data within existing data. When we encounter foreign unclassifiable data or imagery we immediately try to rationalise it by relating it to preexisting knowledge.

De Bono uses various analogical descriptions to visualize memory processes. The metaphor of a bowl of jelly, onto which water is dripped and drained away, is used as one such analogy of a memory surface The water drips onto the jelly membrane, and as it does so holes and rivulets begin to form, carving shallow impressions in the jelly membrane. The process is repeated only this time the water is not dropped in the exact same position but one close enough so as to flow into the pre-existing channels. The water naturally seeks out the low-lying areas and hence further fills and confirms those patterns set down. The waters natural inclination is to use the paths already worn to navigate the plate of jelly (ibid.). In this way we use pre-existing memory paths in our perception and creation of new memories.

The process of recalling information reaffirms and strengthens preexisting memories. This makes the creation of original lines of thought, unencumbered by retracing or recalling past associations seemingly impossible. De Bono (1990) speaks of the creation of new pathways as diversions. In the creation of conscious diversions new patterns arise out of preexisting ones. ‘The task is to emphasize the unused pathway so that it

18 may take over’ (ibid. p. 164). The psychogeographic dérive fits into this shift away from pre-established patterns of perceptual and physical interaction. The dérive allows the individual to interact in a consciously differentiated manner, which expands the possibility for new perceptual engagement with the landscape.

19 Shift Two- Constructing the Landscape

The landscape exists now not only as a construct of previous artistic and naturalistic definitions. The contemporary landscape, with its roots within this delineation of an “other” naturalistic space, is today perceptually engaged with on multiple levels. The contemporary landscape is inherently perceptually layered; changing, and changed by the way we see the world. The landscape exists as a space of constant conceptual revision of perceptual information, informed by historic naturalistic positions and shifted through virtual and physical interpretations.

Part One – Wild World

The wilderness was first set aside as early as Cicero articulated it in the term ‘second nature’. A nature separated from us by the act of its definition and in the recreation of its form. We other the natural world through our re-presentation of it within art, ‘[b] y the use of our hands, we bring into being within the realm of nature a second nature for ourselves - Cicero De Natura Deorum II 60’ (Ruthven 1979, p. 2). The natural world and its defining characteristics, are intertwined with the term landscape and its perception.

Wilson (1991) discusses the progressive transformation of the concept of nature in tourism, within the north American Landscape and the evolution of the tourist industry focused towards the consumer driven leisure time, occurring post WWII industrialization boom. Wilson (ibid) discusses the culture of tailoring and marketing the experiences of the natural world as focused towards an attraction or feature of the

20 place. ‘Sightseeing was no longer an individual activity, at least not in the eyes of those in the business. It was the organized mass consumption of familiar landscapes. Facilities had to be standardized and the “tourist object” – in this case an idea of nature – transformed into recognizable terms’ (ibid. p. 42).

Wilson’s assertions contextualise contemporary shifts in the perception of the landscape, from a wild space existing out there, to one, which was produced for safe, organised consumption. The landscape exists as symbolically invented space, born out of previous romanticized notions of the landscape and commodified through the imposition of a set of economically motivated legislation and mediation of space (ibid.). The shifting definition of natural and built environments reflects our shifting perceptual relationship to the landscape space as built up within our memory.

It is this memory of landscapes past and present, which arises in the navigation of city spaces. The detachment from nature, within the city derive, produces an urban wandering informed by memories of this space as it is and as it might have been. The re-introduction of nature in city spaces panders to the absolute perceived control over nature in the spaces we occupy. Walking today we carry these notions within us, further informing our conceptual memory of the contemporary landscape, a memory existing on multiple levels with a sense of multifaceted spatial qualities constantly shifting over time.

21 Part two – Virtually Memory

Figure 1. Ziegler, T 2004. Designated for leisure. Oil on scotch brite, 285 x 400 cm. [Painting] (Saatchi Gallery, London).

We see the world in a perceptually different manner due to technological advancements. ‘If anything distinguishes this century from others it must be the ways in which technology has supplemented, illuminated and now almost replaced our sight’ (Hayward and Britain 1993, p. 10). The screen, the lens, and the smart device have changed the way we see and as a result the way we remember. As such the representation of shifting landscape realities is increasingly investigated within artists practices, such as in Toby Ziegler’s work Designated for leisure, 2004.

Psychogeographic navigation of space positions virtual terrain as another facet of reality informing memory. The genre-based definition of landscape painting is mediated by emerging technological visualisations. ‘Whether it represents a place actually seen or only imagined, landscape imposes personal values upon the raw data of perception’ (Cohn 2008, p. 27). The perception of the world is increasingly informed by new virtual dimensions, further layering our conceptual interaction with reality as existing in both physical and virtual dimensions.

22 The perception and depiction of landscape is played out in its proliferation in tourist snapshots mimicking the advertisements, which drew them to the location in the first place. ‘The Images detached from every aspect of life merge into common stream in which the unity of that life can no longer be recovered. Fragmented views of reality regroup themselves into a new unity as a separate pseudo-world that can only be looked at’ (Debord 1967, p. 7).

Contemporary landscape perception is further altered through the introduction of virtual and augmented spaces. The world is viewed from above through programs such as Google earth and street-view in which we are able to not only look down upon the world, we are also able to walk down foreign streets. This shifts individuals from a singular detached position into a globalized one of familiarised “othered” spaces. The contemporary landscape is informed by these multiple conceptual positions, furthering its multiplicitous and questioning nature.

Part three – Re-viewing the Landscape

The physical layering of space in Simon Schama’s oft quoted, Landscape and memory, (1995) posits the landscape as being ‘the work of the mind. Its scenery is built up as much from strata of memory as from layers of rock’ (ibid. p. 7). Schama’s multilayered concept of the landscape contains levels of attributed meaning, from historic and personal narratives to shifts in ideology surrounding the objectified and remembered landscape space.

The infinite documentation of the landscape, both in the city and natural world, is consumed globally on a daily basis. It is not detached from reality but exists in parallel, creating a new objectified reality experience physically and virtually. ‘The spectacle that falsifies reality is nevertheless a real product of that reality’ (Debord 1967, p. 8). The multitude of historic references as well as their continuing proliferations, through multiple virtual forms, continually layers people’s perception of the landscape.

The landscape terrain we were used to interacting with has shifted from that of the experienced “out there” reality to that of an amalgamation of perceived real, augmented and virtual interactions informing the “in here” reality. This has further created an “in

23 there” reality of virtual representation within the computer world. The contemporary landscape is derived from a multitude of sources, which furthers its description as an ambiguously indefinite space.

The landscapes relevance today lies in the infinite possibilities for interpreting spatial data. Ambiguity is important in the contemporary landscapes description as it reflects the role of the artist and viewer in questioning as well as constructing interpretation through artistic processes of abstraction and material manipulation of the world and our construction of societal norms in the interaction space. Within my practice this information is walked out across the topography of the city space, seen perceived and visualised in a mediated form. Within the broader context of artistic practice the landscape is explored in as many ways as there are artists.

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Shift Three – Represented

For practicing artists today the contemporary landscape is one of mixed and diverse information. The artists encountered below interact with the landscapes layered history in conjunction with directly translating and manipulating spatial information collected within their respective practices. .

Part One – Landscape and Memory

The concept of landscape and memory (Schama 1995) has attained an almost mythical status in the chord it has struck within artistic practice. This concept of landscape and memory has spawned multiple forms of investigation into the topic.

Patrick Heide Contemporary Art, in London, held an exhibition titled Landscape and Memory 2011-2012. This group show and looked at ‘the works of seven artists exploring their contemporary visions of nature, the elements and ultimately landscape’ (Heide 2011).

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Figure 2. Mathews, P 2010. 8 Hours in the Atlantic Ocean. Pen and rust on paper, 33 x 102.9 cm. [Drawing] (Patrick Heide Gallery, London).

Peter Mathew’s work is descriptively titled, with reference to his process of creation. The physical interaction with the environment of the ocean is mapped out through spending an extended period of time in that space. The drawing itself becomes an artifact of the undulating interaction with physical space representing a direct trace of the artists physical and mental perception of what it is to be in the Atlantic ocean for 8 hours. ‘The artist’s stream of consciousness fuses with a type of automated drawing created by the chance movements of the ocean’ ( Patrick Heide gallery 2011). There is a literal visualisation of experience and thought, recording a stream of information, outsourced to an external tactile memory surface, recorded in situ.

Figure 3. Kirkeby, P 1984. Untitled. Oil on Canvas, 300 x 400 cm. [Painting] (Museum Ludwig, Cologne).

26 Where Mathews work interacts with the undulating surface of the watery landscape Per kirkeby digs deep within the landscape to expose the raw strata of the earth, rendering its form in gestural layers. With a degree in arctic geology, Kirkeby’s earth exposes itself and belies the artist history of the artist himself, these themes are therefore very characteristic in the works of the artist (Galleri Bo Bjerggaard 2012). Kirkeby’s landscape is full with undefined potential. The spatial construction built up in layers of reworked space, constantly re-forming the image as it emerges through the murky depths of memory.

Part two – Tracking/Tracing

Memories are often forgotten. The exhibition Tracking/tracing visualises three indigenous artists engagement with the layered histories of the Australian landscape. “The artists represent discursive positions interconnecting them through their focus on place, time, memory, history in relation to landscape, combining the personal with the archival” (Walsh et al. 2012, p. 5). When our perception of the landscape is informed by cultural the forgotten aspects form a parallel reality. Figure

4. Lawler, K 2009. Between Lines #8 (Jones Soak, position approximate), Great Sandy Desert, Western Australia. [Aerial photograph] (Gallery Stiftelsen 3,14, Norway).

27 The exhibition Tracking/Tracing engages with this landscape of forgotten memory through a re-view of traditional western forms of spatial articulation. ‘Their works, each about landscape in different ways, quietly and subtly offer forward new images and metaphors for our traversals of the world’ (ibid. p. 8). Kim Lawler uses aerial photography to capture vast stretches of the Sandy Desert region strewn with vestiges of human interaction, weather patterns and terrestrial pathways carved by rivers past, and people present.

Figure 5. Walter, S 2008. The Island, London. Graphite on paper, 101 x 153 cm. (British Library Maps CC.6.a.30, London).

Where Lawler maps forgotten histories Stephen Walter creates personal memory maps of London. The textual topography situates itself within a cartographic history, which will be further encountered within phase three, using perceptual engagement with physical space. This is later visualised through utilizing memory of the traversed space of London. The imagery differs from traditional mapping through its replacement of scientific topographical information with an individual perception of place.

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Figure 6. Walter, S 2008. The Island, London (detail). Graphite on paper, 101 x 153 cm. (British Library Maps CC.6.a.30, London).

The site specific nature of mapping is revealed by these artist practices. The maps make sense to the individual. The coded symbolic language evolves on a cultural and personal level; the more you know the more you understand. To unfold the information contained within we must dig deep beneath the surface of perceptual spatial interaction.

Part three – Klee

Klee investigated perception as not a mirroring of nature but rather an expression of some deeper truth or inner reality, which refers implicitly to the nature of our reality as being one constructed by our senses. The construction of the natural world was seen as a mirror of one perceptual engagement with an infinite reality.

The Paul Klee creative credo positioned art as follows: -

Art does not reproduce the visible, rather it makes visible. Formerly we used to represent things visible on earth, things we either liked to look at or would have liked

29 to see. Today we reveal the reality that is behind visible things, thus expressing the belief that the visible world is merely an isolated case in relation to the universe, and that there are many more, other, latent, realities. Things appear to assume a broader and more diversified meaning, and often seem to contradict the rational experience of yesterday. There is a striving to emphasize the essential character of the accidental. (Klee and Grohmann 1985, p. 16).

In representing aspects of the perceived world we are inherently using processes, which draw upon theoretical possibilities for the nature of reality, causing an expression of space in perceptually abstract terms. This process relies on an understanding of the nature of how perception and memory function. Through the layered formation of our memories we are able to create images or objects, which reference the multiplicity of landscape perception.

Figure 7. Klee, P 1935. Das Licht und die Schärfen. Watercolor and pencil on paper on cardboard. 32 x 48 cm. [Painting] (Held by Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern)

According to Klee the optical approach is outworn; now the artist explores the object’s inner being, its cross-sections (anatomy), vital functions (physiology), the laws governing its life (biology), and, lastly, its ties with the universe as a whole – relations both with the earth and with heavenly bodies (terrestrial roots and cosmic unity, statistics and dynamics, gravity and flight). Self and universe are related at every point. The resulting pictures differ from the optical image of the object yet do not contradict it 30 from the point of view of the totality, for all these considerations merge in the artists eye (Klee and Grohmann 1985, p. 25). The potential of artistic visualization then lies in uncovering aspects of reality beyond the perceived world.

31 Phasing Memory to Practice

The blue line within the practice sections of this thesis are examples of the manner in which the physicality of the walked dérive interacts with the literary dérive. is through the navigation and interaction with the physical and conceptual world that we construct our concept of the contemporary landscape. A concept informed by our encounters with multiple propositions for the meaning of this term today. Thus understanding the perception of the landscape space is integral to understanding how we are to approach the contemporary landscape through contemporary psychogeography.

The city space and is inherently tied to an ‘othered’ nature. The potentially wild world is ever present in our city parks and tree lined streets. Its constructed order is unhinged by the limitless, imaginative urban ramblings we may take. Perceptual interaction stirs imaginative ramblings, parallel worlds of overgrown city spaces, dystopian visions and infinitely potential and problematically incomprehensible, alternate sensorial experiences of reality are imagined within the mind. Our virtual wanderings are able to traverse an entirely parallel universe.

These differing manners of perceiving, and as such remembering exist in parallel influence today informing perceptual navigation of a forest grove or city laneway,

32 constructing the new context of layered landscape perception. Types of memories create stratified spatial recollections, which are visualised within artistic practice as traces of the world as it might have been. Streets are navigated through streets of our past. Nature is seen through movie screens and advertisements on poster plastered walls. The individual’s spatial reality is increasingly fragmented through multiple states of perceptual information encountered across a multitude of physical and virtual terrain.

Practice and Memory

33 Figure 8. Lett, B 2010. Refraction 2.0. Ink, pastel, charcoal on unprimed canvas, 100 x 120 cm. (Private collection, Sydney).

Spatial abstraction through planes of colour and line are intuitively applied through the immediacy of material interaction. The psychogeographic perception of space is visualised within the recollective act. Colours and forms materialise in the minds visual recollection of past landscape spaces. Rolling hills merge with ambiguous structures. A colour here shines brightly as a shadow creeps along.

Staining became both a conceptual and physical act, which metaphorically materialized the relationship between experienced perceptual space and memory, creating a memory stain. These stains are traces of landscapes, layered through pigments in their reference to multiple landscape memories.

Figure 9. Lett, B 2010. Refraction 2.1. Ink, pastel, charcoal on unprimed canvas, 100 x 120 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

34 Afterimages of stained city streets, memories built by passing traffic, splashing water and flashing lights, naturalistic spaces of wild woods and mountainous peaks all arise and fall in an abyss of limitless space. The encounter with the footpath weed stirs vestiges of absent wild spaces. The fragmented planes of colour reflect memories of multiple spaces bubbling to the surface of the mind. Linear arcs criss cross these colourful worlds dictating to and dictated by to the fragmentary spaces they move within.

Figure 10. Lett, B 2010. Refraction 2.2. Ink, pastel, charcoal on unprimed canvas, 100 x 120 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

These contemporary landscapes react to a past present and future of spatial ambiguity. Spaces interacted with physically are visualised as an abstraction of one perceptual reality and as a proposition for another. The layers of colour and line are constructed out of a range of memories — from a vista seen in the mountains to a walk down the street view of Google earth on the other side of the world. They draw upon the light of the sun and the shadows cast through clouds of angular buildings.

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Figure 11. Lett, B 2010. Refraction 2.3. Ink, pastel, charcoal on unprimed canvas, 100 x 120 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

The planes of colour intersected by changing angles are created through shifting perspectives. The work’s fragmentation creates twisting spatial relationships between the forms through a lack of a set orientation while working upon the floor. Through constant movement around the abstract forms the direct linear horizon of the landscape is omitted and the orientation of linear perspective and illusionistic space is rendered ambiguous through a constant process of spatial reorientation.

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Figure 12. Lett, B 2010. Refraction 2.4. Ink, pastel, charcoal on unprimed canvas, 100 x 120 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

This new process instigated a new wave of propositional spaces. Creating a series of work, which would in its reception be awarded the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship and a residency in Paris through which I was able to develop my psychogeographic exploration of spatial enquiry through physical and conceptual travel within the global contemporary landscape.

37 Phase Two: Space

Multifaceted interpretations of space are psychogeographically encountered within the Shifts of this Phase. The Parts of investigation structurally reiterate the manner in which memory is constructed through layers of spatial interaction. Through contemporary spatial questioning we inherently must investigate previous lines of spatial exploration across various theoretical, scientific, and artistic forms. This multifaceted exploration is mapped out, within the diagram, in a manner reflective of a the psychogeographic derive.

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Shift One – Physical Space

Art, science and technology have developed in parallel, articulating concepts of time and space through experimentation and research. Creative minds utilize contemporary concepts, technological innovation and theoretical physics to redefine the time and space of the world they live within. Space and matter are being redefined today through experiments taking place at the Large Hadron Collider. These experiments are shifting our perception of physical space while further conceptually layering our spatial perception.

Part One - Trading Spaces

Just as we are now engaging with new theoretical propositions on the nature of space, time and the reality of the universe so too were Picasso and Einstein. Just as they had in the past so are we now seeking to articulate these concepts.

Picasso’s development of cubism arose out of a context of great perceptual shifts: -

New developments in technology such as airplanes, wireless telegraphy and automobiles were altering everyone’s conception of space and time. Pioneering cinematography and the discovery of X rays seemed to render inside and outside ambiguous, the dimension between two and three dimensions was blurred. Even more abstractly mathematicians mused over exotic new geometries that could be represented

39 in dimensions greater than three. People were especially fascinated by the idea of four- dimensional space, with its implication of motion in space or time (Miller 2002, p. 3).

Cubism arose out of this context, through experimentation and engagement with physical properties of multidimensional space. ‘Picasso listened to discourses on non- Euclidean geometry and the fourth dimension’ (ibid. p. 4). His interest in the nature of space and his revision of its depiction in art, through multiple perspectives, speaks of the physical unfolding of multi-dimensional space.

Furthermore parallels in Picasso and Einstein’s practice, lying within a set of socio- cultural circumstance, allowed them to create the theories and concepts they did. They both ‘believed that art and science are means for exploring worlds beyond perceptions, beyond appearances’ (ibid.). They utilized their perceptions of the world to articulate intangible layers of reality, and in doing so radically shifted the manner in which people perceived physical and conceptually visualised space.

One mind worked with physical materials, unfolding objects, constructing multidimensional visualisations while the other theoretical, his material light, space and time, the later two of which would be proved to be one and the same. ‘Ultimately they were working on the same problem: How to represent space and time at just the moment in history when it became apparent that these entities are not what we intuitively perceive them to be’ (Miller 2002, p. 174).

Spatial reality was pushed outside of existing definitions a phenomenologically experienced world. Picasso and Einstein ‘were both interested in expanding the concept of perception out of its common sense basis. The notion of a new common sense that includes the relative nature of space and time extends perception beyond the ken of our senses’ (ibid. p. 252). This revolutionary questioning of space and time shifted knowledge beyond an intuitive perception of space into a conceptually layered world littered with previous assumptions. Today experiments in art and physics are once again revolutionising our perception of the world.

40 Part Two - Multiplicity

When we walk the street of the city it seems conceptually disorientating to fathom that the space here exists in the same context as space “out there”. Space as it exists in the sense of “outer space”, where our theories have developed to the point where the single expanding model of the universe does not account for the possibility of a very different model. ‘Cosmologists have come to realize that there are many contexts in which our universe could be just one of a (possibly infinite) ensemble of “parallel” universes in which the physical constraints vary’ (Carr 2007, p. 4).

To walk down the street with this knowledge radically shifts the manner in which you perceptually engage with the street, constantly meandering, navigating and questioning objects. From an infinitely positioned shadow the vast imperceptible spectrum of light entering our eyes is potentially refracted within the lens of another’s on a parallel world, soaking in colours, imperceptible to our mind.

The further physics theorizes, the more — previously deemed ridiculous — past assertions of science fiction wormholes and parallel universes seem to come closer to being propositions for alternate spatial realities. ‘The most important thing, a dramatic change that has occurred over the past twenty years or so, is that such ideas are no longer treated as the wild –eyed imaginings of theorists who have been reading too much science fiction. There is growing evidence that there really is more to the world than the universe we can see directly’ (Gribbin 2010, p. xii).

If an infinite number of realities exist in a multiverse of multidimensional space time where ‘[t] he popular many worlds interpretation suggests quantum objects display several behaviours because they inhabit an infinite number of parallel universes’ (McKee 2006, p. 1 of 6). If the world is just one amongst many versions, then spatial enquiry within the contemporary landscape must also include infinite un-experienced spaces within our conceptual engagement with the parts we are able to perceive.

Abstraction of perceptual data then becomes an exploratory realism, of a multifaceted and ambiguous spatial reality, which acknowledges the limits of our perceptual

41 understanding. We encounter not only the memories of previous landscape constructions but of, potentially infinite, spatial realities.

Part Three – What Matters

Contemporary physics is tackling some of the biggest questions of our generation in investigating the fundamental nature of what and how we experience matter. This question is at the heart of many experiments taking place right now at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest particle accelerator. Superconducting magnets accelerate the energy of the particles sent at close to the speed of light, around its 27 Km circumference, before smashing into one another (European Organization for Nuclear Research 2008).

In the search for unifying physics experiments carried out at the LHC have questioned established fundamental pillars of physics. In 2011 Einstein’s theory of special relativity, which posits the speed of light speed as an absolute, was turned on its head with the announcement that scientists in Italy, working on the OPERA experiment at the LHC, had recorded Muon Neutrino’s travelling at faster than the speed of light (Davoudiasl and Rizzo 2011, p. 1).

For a brief moment in history, 100 years after the world took on Einstein’s theory of relativity, the absolute speed of light was stated to be incorrect. The LHC made the world question absolutes in science, creating ambiguity around the nature of a reality, we take for granted, by creating a moment in time when reality, as taught in school, was broadcast around the world as incorrect, even if for just ‘60 billionths of a second’ (Palmer 2011, p. 1 of 2).

There reside four different particle detectors, within the LHC’s circumference, which are used in 6 distinct experiments. According to the LHC governing body CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research 2008) the two main experiments are ATLAS and CMS, whose main scientific objectives are the same, the search for; extra dimensions, particles that could make up dark matter and the Higgs boson, ‘an undiscovered elementary particle, thought to be a vital piece of particle physics’ (Lee 2006, p.vii),

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This elementary particle is important in that ‘the Higgs Boson is the particle responsible for giving mass to all the other particles’ (PHD comics 2012). This concept is further expanded in characterising mass as not being made of ‘stuff’ but rather mass being a characteristic of a particle, analogous to charge as being a characteristic of a particle, ‘[s] ome particles have charge and some don’t; an electron, for example, has charge. In this way the concept of mass can be thought of as gravitational charge’ (Ibid.).

Higgs theory is important in that it radically changes our concept of spatial reality. The universe is described as being permeated by a field. This field interacts with different particles in different ways. The reason for the difference in interactions is the relationship between the field and the particle. Some particles move slowly through this field and some move quickly, and this is in turn causes the mass of the particle. So the question then becomes not why do different particles have different mass but rather why do different particles feel the Higgs field differently? The Higgs is the manifestation of this field, the evidence for its existence (ibid.).

The relevance of finding this particle is that we are all physically interacting with space in the same manner as all matter in the universe. We are all interacting with the Higgs field. Further more the space around us is not simply an empty field void of matter, the universe of perceived matter we know accounts for just 5% of the universe, the rest is comprised of dark energy accounting for roughly 70% and dark mater accounting for about 25% (NASA 2012, p. 2 of 4).

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Figure 13. CERN 2012. A Proton-proton Collision Event at CMS Experiment. Digital artwork, Dimensions variable. (CERN, Geneva).

On the 4th July 2012 the Higgs Boson, visualised above as the two red towers, was preliminarily given a 5 Sigma probability of a new particle having been discovered, independently, by both the CMS and ATLAS experiments. This particle fulfills the predicted Higgs Boson characteristics and its discovery completes the standard model of particle physics (“CERN Press Release” 2012). Space as we know it has been redefined in the context of all matter as we know it being interconnected through the Higgs Boson. This radically shifts the conceptual engagement with our physical environments.

44 Shift Two - Questionable Space

The relationship between theoretical space and physical space is one continuously questioned through critical interaction with the world. This is done through tactile visualisations of theoretical spatial concepts, utopian architectural visions and propositions for humanities past present and futuristic technological evolution. These investigations inform our sense of contemporary spatial navigation, foregrounded by previous scientific and artistic interventions into our concept of space.

Part One – Three Standard Stoppages

Not so long ago Einstein’s theory of relativity was being proven through experiments involving the nature of light and the effect of gravity. ‘According to traditional Newtonian mechanics, light had no weight nor could it be bent from a straight course by gravitation, Einstein predicted that the paths of light rays passing close to the sun would be shifted. Such a shift could be measured by photographing bright stars near the sun during a total eclipse, and by comparison their positions when the sun was else where’ (Klein 1974, p. 316). Light and as such objects, position was relative and could be seen to bend through space.

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Figure 14. Duchamp, D., 1913. 3 Standard Stoppages. Mixed media, Dimensions variable. [Painting and Sculpture] (The Museum of Modern Art, New York).

Duchamp had been, as had Picasso, ‘interested in non-Euclidean geometry and the fourth dimension. He conducted fanciful scientific experiments which gave a new form to the unit of length in his construction Three Standard Stoppages’ (ibid.).

This work consisted of three one-metre lengths of string dropped from a height of one metro onto canvas. The three strings were then fixed into place and used as a guide to cut out one side of three wooden metre sticks, used as standard units of measurement. ‘Thus Duchamp contrasted the straight side of the metric stick, related to the traditional metric system, with the randomly curved side, the new unit of his whimsical physics’ (ibid. p. 317). His work cleverly illustrates the literal straight measuring of space, utilized in the construction of our orderly city buildings, when its physicality can bend and twist undermining linear space.

Part two - City re-view

The city space is one in a constant state of re-development, whether through various hypothetical utopian visions or simple re-construction. The city of Paris holds significant stature in direct reference to its redesign by Georges-Eugène Haussmann, and the subsequent Internationale Situationist dérive within this city space. A dérive, whose subversion of the city space, through experimental divergent interaction, has

46 come to inform my own psychogeographic research and my exploration of the contemporary landscape.

This is not a historic account of Paris but rather a short contextual review in order to uncover the relationship between spatial change and challenged modes of interaction. Haussmann redesigned the medieval streets of Paris in the 18th Century. Although Paris underwent continuous re-developmental to roads and city planning throughout the centuries, just as any major city across the world, it was not ‘comprehensively undertaken until Georges Haussmann (…) finally gave perfect form to the enlightenment’s idealized urban project: rationality, regularity, clarity, comprehension, transparency, legibility’ (Higonnet 2005, p. 170).

The city was one opened up through grand boulevards, where ‘visibility is the key: Haussmann’s long perspectives made it possible to take in an entire avenue at a glance, to decipher and organize the city space’ (ibid. p. 172). The cities renovated functionality removed winding alleyways and created a new environment, which dictated a differentiated mode of interaction. Haussmann was ‘motivated by the desire to open up broad thoroughfares allowing for the rapid circulation of troops and the use of artillery against insurrections. But from any standpoint other than that of facilitating police control, Haussmann’s Paris is a city built by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing’ (Debord 1955, p. 1 of 4). Debords derision of the city developed a subversive attitude to interacting with it.

This dictated Parisian space is precisely what the Internationale Situationists came out of, engaged with and proceeded to subvert. The movement arose from the Lettrist Internationale, whose ‘quest was for new methods of intervention in everyday life’ (Debord 1957, p. 7 of 13). The Lettrist’s politically motivated, revolutionary doctrine of societal reform, joined with the Imaginary Bauhaus to spawn Internationale Situationism (IS) whose ‘central idea is the construction of situations, that is to say, the concrete construction of momentary ambiances of life and their transformation into a superior passional quality’ (Debord 1957, p. 9 of 13).

The IS wished to transform modes of physical interaction with the city space. ‘The group founded itself around the idea of “unitary urbanism”, a subversion of

47 conventional urban planning set in motion by their infamous derive’ (Wigley 1998, p. 12).

The process of the derive was articulated as follows: -

In a dérive one or more persons during a certain period drop their relations, their work and leisure activities, and all their other usual motives for movement and action, and let themselves be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters they find there (...) from a dérive point of view cities have psychogeographical contours, with constant currents, fixed points and vortexes that strongly discourage entry into or exit from certain zones (Debord 1956, p. 1 of 5).

Figure 15. Debord, G 1957. Psychogeographic guide of Paris. [Collaged Map of Paris].

The dérive removes the individual from their purposeful interaction with the city. The individual explorer takes over seeking out un-dictated perceptual experience. ‘Spatial development must take into account the emotional effects that the experimental city is

48 intended to produce’ (Debord 1957, p. 10 of 13). The derive allows for free interaction and critic of the city space. Reactionary impulse towards the city space are encouraged and exploration is guided by a wish to see anew in a manner allowing for an ambling encounter with a multitude of spatial situations.

Part Three - Monolithic Space

Our spatial perception of the world has further been constructed through Science fictions speculative futuristic depictions of technologically complex futures. In the seminal film, 2001 A Space Odyssey (1968) Kubrick examines technological futurism within disorientating architectural and psychological environments. The invented depiction of other worlds, invented peoples, spaces, parallel universes and virtual realities exists as a reflection of theoretical physics propositions for time and space.

2001 A Space Odyssey (ibid.) Explores the history of the earth and its emergent habitation by the human race. Three giant black monolithic prisms are unearthed throughout earths history. These objects of ambiguous origin, whose untarnished polished flat surfaces resist penetration, exist as symbols of technological and evolutionary advancement throughout the universe.

Figure 16. Kubrick, S 1968. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Film still). Adventure, Sci-Fi. [Film] (Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc).

49 The black prism’s simple minimal form encapsulates a multitude of spatial ambiguity drifting through the universe. Their ambiguous origin, function and materiality reveal how little we know. Their presence as an object floating through space could visualize dark matter or within the opulent setting above could function as a portal to a parallel world. The expanding and contracting scale of this object specific to its location in time and space is similar to Duchamp’s three standard stoppages as they relate to questioning absolute assumptions about the nature of perception and an evolving understanding of reality.

Todays realisation of this black monolith both towers above us in our architecture, dictating the paths we traverse daily, and also is realised in the Smart phones form, popularized in the iPhones design , ‘those mysterious structures that seem to spur the movement of human progress whenever they appear’ (Kolker 2006, p. 9). The black prism smartphones we carry provide access to an incomprehensible amount of human knowledge, informing our spatial navigation of reality.

50 Shift Three - Reconfigured

Artists reconfigure the world around them through their manipulation of materials. This material manipulation often visualises intangible aspects of the world. It is through the altering of our assumptions about the world that this manipulation is most successful. When the art object reaches a certain level of ambiguity there often results in not simply a questioning of its form but of the reality of the space and time in which we exist.

Part One - Cutting Space

Richard Serra’s work stands within above and between architecture, cutting in half, bending twisting vast sheets of industrial steel, altering our interaction and perception of space itself. Promenade, 2008 — installed at the Grand Palais for Monumenta 2008 — cannot help but be compared to the monoliths in 2001 a space odyssey (Kubrick 1968). Both ambiguously imposing structures occupy similarly opulent space.

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Figure 17. Serra, R 2008. Promenade. Steel, dimensions variable. In: Monumenta 2008, Richard Serra. The effect of perspective, 2008. [Sculpture and Installation] (Grand Palais).

Serra’s work invites awe in the scale and deceptive simplicity. When looked upon from above the delicate curves of metal, in works such as The Matter of Time (Serra 2005), appear as vast swirling sheets leaning gently into each other as if alternate dimensions existing in parallel. To walk amongst these sheets of steel your field of vision is filled with monumental rust stained surfaces. The works physical depth and gentle tension lead to unavoidable questions of their production and their presence as objects whose form inhabits time and space.

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Figure 18. Serra R 2005. The matter of Time (Installation seven sculptures). Weatherproof steel, Varying dimensions. [Sculpture] (Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao).

Wandering through this space the structures material connection cuts and redefines the space it exists within. This room could be positioned as a microcosm of the universe in which the steel is all visible matter and the entire space pervaded by the Higgs field, giving mass to these visible universal structures.

53 Part Two – Wall Space

Figure 19. Stella, S 1959. The Marriage of Reason and Squalor, II. Enamel on canvas, 230.5 x 337.2 cm. [Painting] (Museum of Modern Art, New York).

Frank Stella’s dark and linear forms allude to virtual and conceptual spatial realities hidden from the perceived world. ‘In this period Stella denied any illusion of space or depth and asserted the flatness and object-quality of the canvas itself’ (Constance 2009, p. 5 of 6). The denial of illusionistic space in the minimalism of Frank Stella’s, 1950 - 1960’s black paintings later shifted with Stella’s introduction of colour and shaped supports.

Figure 20. Stella, S 1967. Harran II. Polymer and fluorescent polymer paint on canvas, 304.8 x 609.6 cm. [Painting] (Guggenheim Museum, New York).

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Stella’s re-introduction of colour and form was further expanded into the world through his sculptural wall works. The shaped planes, of works such as Harran II, push and pull the flattened surface of the works, alluding to multiple dimensions of space layered within one image, comprised of many. This allusion to space was further applied through a formally engaging, yet visually frenzied, circular canvas and steel collaboration. The physical curvature of illusionistic space however speaks of the multidimensional nature of our spatial understanding today.

Figure 21. Stella, F and Calatrava, S 2008-2011. The Michael Kolhaas Curtain. Mixed media on tarpaulin and metal lattice, 30 m mural enclosed in metal framework. [Painting and Sculpture] (New National Gallery, Berlin).

In a similar spatial questioning Matt Rich’s spatial review comes in the form of painted paper, cut and assembled upon the wall. The organized object plays with space through direct interaction with the place it occupies. The linear structure shifts within the both broken colour and layered material. The coloured panels spatial twisting creates an ambiguous relationship to the wall through the contrasting use of white planes, confusing the eyes spatial perception.

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Figure 22. Rich, M 2010. James and Audrey Foster Prize Exhibition (Installation). Latex and spray paint on cut paper and linen tape, dimensions variable. [Painting and collage] (The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston).

Part Three - Physical Painting

The materiality of artists practice is inherently linked to physics in its experimentation with matter. Painting involves the manipulation and transformation of material from one state to another. The material properties of paint have been explored, in the work of many artists from Jackson Pollock to the stained work of Helen Frankenthaler and Morris Lewis.

Recently physicists conducted the first study on the fluid dynamics of Jackson Pollock’s work (Herczynski et al. 2011, p. 31-36). Pollock’s process of paint manipulation has been equated to being the first experimentation of the effects on viscous liquids poured at differing speeds, predating physics articles on the matter in the 1950’s with his work Untitled 1948-1949 (Grossman 2011, p. 2 of 12). The interaction

56 with material and body traces movement through time and space. The relationship between the physical properties of paint and their application to map space mapping movement through space.

Figure 23. Pollock, J 1948-1949. Untitled. Dripped ink and enamel on paper, 56.8 x 76.2 cm. [Painting] (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).

Morris early enamel work shifted after interaction with Frankenthaler’s technique of ‘staining’ raw canvas in her work Mountains and Sea, 1953 (Brookeman, 2009, p. 2 of 2). The introduction of the stain created a visually ambiguous surface. The ‘technique created a wash-like transparency so that the perception of depth was problematic’ (ibid.).

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Figure 24. Louis, M 1959. Saraband. Acrylic resin on canvas, 256.9 x 378.5 cm. [Painting] (Guggenheim Museum New York, New York).

The removal of spatial definition in Frankenthaler’s work flows through that of Morris Lewis. Lewis utilized staining in the transformation of surface, imbedding one material within the other. The process of staining removed the separation of subject and support through the pigments literal bleed into the very fabric of the work. ‘By handling paint as a dye that penetrates the fibers of the canvas rather than as a topical layer brushed over it, he made figure and ground one and the same, uniting them through color’ (Bridget 2012, p. 1 of 2). The vast field of the canvas is simultaneously consuming in its ability to drop the viewer into a field of colour while opening out onto an abyss of indistinct space. The swirling masses of colour and form within both artists work speak more about an encounter with an “in here” reality put back into the “out there” world as a result of intuitive artistic process.

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Phasing Space to Practice

The contemporary landscape is used within this thesis as a descriptive concept to define an ambiguous, aesthetic space informed by historically evolving concepts. Multilayered memories unfold as we become aware of the effects of time on our theoretical understanding of the spaces we encounter. The artists, physics and technological concepts investigated within this phase, are positioned as examples of how intangible aspects of the world have been investigated and visualised across various material approaches.

59 The paths we tread become altered through the knowledge that they were first laid as paths dictated from within anothers head. As I walk the street the parts of information arise and fall as conscious thought, perhaps triggered by an image or shape in passing. The concept of a Higgs field, permeating the universe, may be triggered by the lattice of a fence weaving through space leading to a questioning of physics and matter itself.

The experience may be immediately recorded on a piece of paper, documented through photography, written about and shared with the world. The location data uploaded to the internet with some trivial piece of information which may spur some individual on the other side of the world to hit a latitude and longitude coordinate you just then may have typed and look down on the very same alley you just ventured down. Yet now on Google earth from two, three or more years ago, the space you see there may be inhabited by another frozen in time and space. The murkiness of definitive literal space bleeds out through multiple physical and virtual states of interaction.

60 Practice and Space

Figure 25. Lett, B 2010. Awesome Figure 26. Lett, B 2010. Awesome landscape series (1 of 4). Mixed media on landscape series (2 of 4). Mixed media on paper, 40 x 50 cm. (Collection of the artist, paper, 40 x 50 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney). Sydney).

Figure 27. Lett, B 2010. Awesome Figure 28. Lett, B 2010. Awesome landscape series (3 of 4). Mixed media on landscape series (4 of 4). Mixed media on paper, 40 x 50 cm. (Collection of the artist, paper, 40 x 50 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney). Sydney).

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Surface planes solidify and dissipate as remembered spaces rise and fall from the conscious plane of thought. The elements howl across open plains into the wind swept tunnels of city streets. Looming structures fall upon the ground as the sun turns to rain spots upon the city streets. The weather whips up trash and wets the dust upon the ground, washing away the stains left from oil leaks. The open field of paper upon which these spaces marks are made is left scratched and worn. Water dries as the mess of the surface settles into a certain rhythm into which our vision penetrates. The image left recalling half forgotten spaces.

Figure 29. Lett, B 2011. There’s no place like it . Mixed media on paper, 75 x 120 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

My interest in spatial construction within the landscape led to interaction with virtual spaces such as Google earth. This created a shift in spatial perception, which was explored in parallel with theoretical physics propositions on the nature of reality where science fiction and science reality seemingly merge to form a multifaceted ambiguous concept of space today. This exploration into physics and virtual spaces furthered an engagement with the contemporary landscape space as one strewn with the perceived detritus of life, interacted with through a literary and physical spatial derive.

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Figure 30. Lett, B 2011. A destination for the new millenium . Mixed media on paper, 75 x 120 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

The term contemporary landscape is applied as a general concept to delineate the infinite potential visualisations which artists today work within. There is an interest in creating work which questions rather than presumes to dictate what people should think about the world. This is why the ambiguous qualities of abstraction are employed within my practice. It is to allow a recognition for how little we do know about the universe. Spatially layered ambiguous visualisations allow the viewer the freedom to exercise an interaction with an alternately perceived reality.

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Figure 31. Lett, B 2011. Amazing landscape. Mixed media on rag paper. 90 x 120 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

The world is dictated by abstract units of measurement used to articulate abstract concepts of time and space. Reality is constructed by the same visual matter at the most minute level. Scale, time and space are contextually located within a limited sensory perception of a reality “out there” from “in here”. This is all self reflective and understood from within the mind of a growing population of 7 billion, self aware beings in the abyss of incomprehensible space. Infinite potential realities exist within the universe and the freedom in which artistic manipulation abstract forms not only visualises memories of space but proposes alternate perceptual realities. Various forms fall into an ordered array of colours, lines and fragments to construct a world in parallel to the ambiguous nature of our own.

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Figure 32. Lett, B 2011. The Sentinels (1-5). Mixed media on plywood multi-faceted plinths. 150 x 40 x 30 cm each, installation dimensions variable. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

The Spatial enquiry within this thesis in conjunction with an intuitive and experimental practice led to the creation of physical structures. These structures forms initially arose within the abstract geometry of the earlier refraction series. Theses abstract forms were introduced into a tangible reality out of the parallel world in which their forms first appeared. These, elevated timber plinths were then dictated to by the forms resting upon them. A plinths simple use as a display prop is shifted to become the topographical elevation from which the audience is then able to navigate.

65 Phase Three: Mapping

The structure of this phase mirrors the last, correlating shift to shift and part to part. The diagram ties together the parts of each phase, with the potential to read each phase through the context of the last. Within this final phase you shall encounter aspects of mappings, past and present, artistic and conceptual representation. The language of cartography is uncovered as an abstraction of spatial information, which informs and is informed by the dérive within the contemporary landscape. In the act of psychogeographic spatial meandering we are inherently interacting and collecting topographical data. This data constructs our concept of mapped space, built up through literature, science and art. Physical spatial interaction informs our “in here” mapping of the “out there” reality.

66 Shift One – In Re-view

Cartography is steeped in a vast history of directing spatial navigation. Its function however has never simply been dictated by one aspect of culture, but rather by many. The visual language through which we decipher the information encoded within maps forms a parallel, culturally specific language, which today is no longer parochially located. This language today functions on a global scale, accessible through the coded information folded within physical, virtual and conceptual topographical environments, yet is informed by the historically located beginnings of cartography in which mapping and the landscape were one and the same.

Part One – Old Map

Map making has taken multiple forms based upon various levels of data collection and cartographic ideology throughout history. In 16th Century Italy vast map rooms visualised power and wealth. ‘Rooms with walls covered with fresco paintings provided the best examples of the use of maps as vehicles for propaganda’ (Barber et al. 2010, p. 23). This history of cartographic propoganda sets the precedent for how maps are positioned as a scientific objective language yet reflects the subjective motives of the cultural ideology, which produced them.

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Figure 33. Boncompagni, G 1581. Civitas Vetus (Civitavecchia). Fresco. (The Gallery of Maps, The Vatican).

Walking into The map room (1581) at the Vatican, the viewer is confronted by fourty map frescoes depicting ‘the regions of Italy, including the larger and smaller islands in differing scale from region to region’ (Paolucci 2011, p. 10). The maps take an aerial perspective from which the cities scale dwarfs the naturalistic formations of the landscape surrounds in which they sit. The maps scale and topographical information is augmented through the symbolic interpretations of space specific to time and place.

Figure 34. Piranessi, G B 1756. Pianta di Roma (plan of Rome). Etching on paper, 46.5 x 68 cm. (Accessed online).

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Cartographic manipulation furthermore exists within the artist Piranesi’s engravings where archeology and artistic invention mix, repositioning the power of maps within the artist’s eye. Based upon the Severan Marble Plan of Rome, ‘This enormous map, measuring ca. 18.10 x 13 meters was carved between 203-211 CE and covered an entire wall inside the Templum Pacis in Rome (…) only 10-15% of the map survives, broken into 1,186 pieces’ (Najbjerg 2002, p. 1 of 2). Piranesi’s engravings position various fragments of abstract marble fragments alongside and on top of one another, where the shapes abstract compositional function seems as relevant as their cartographic archeological one.

Figure 35. Piranesi, G B 1756. Reconstruction of a map of the center of Imperial Rome. Etching on paper. (St. Louis Public Library, St. Louis).

The fragmentary objectification, which occurs within these etchings, shifts the perception of the map from navigational device to a powerful symbol of historic technological and intellectual power. The map from antiquity becomes an artistic device where its physical form is utilized as an abstract formation arising out of previous spatial constructs lost to time and memory. The maps intended function is lost in the same manner that the city of Rome depicted had been, to time. This evolving relationship between the artist and their use of the map as a device to reveal more about the changing nature of space, its construction and evolution of understanding highlights the position in which mapping sits as primarily an abstraction of space towards a specific function.

69 Part Two – Virtual World

Cartography exists within mapping the physical and mapping through fable: -

On Exactitude in Science

...In that Empire, the Art of Cartography attained such Perfection that the map of a single Province occupied the entirety of a City, and the map of the Empire, the entirety of a Province. In time, those Unconscionable Maps no longer satisfied, and the Cartographers Guilds struck a Map of the Empire whose size was that of the Empire, and which coincided point for point with it. The following Generations, who were not so fond of the Study of Cartography as their Forebears had been, saw that that vast Map was Useless, and not without some Pitilessness was it, that they delivered it up to the Inclemencies of Sun and Winters. In the Deserts of the West, still today, there are Tattered Ruins of that Map, inhabited by Animals and Beggars; in all the Land there is no other Relic of the Disciplines of Geography.

—Suarez Miranda,Viajes de varones prudentes, Libro IV,Cap. XLV, Lerida, 1658 (Borges and Hurley 1998).

This fable has come to virtual realisation through cartographic innovation within Cambridge, UK where ‘[a] n old dream of cartographers has finally been realized through flat-panel displays and small, portable computational devices. For centuries, cartographers have dreamed of full-scale maps, that is, a map with a scale of 1:1, so that 1 Km. of the map would represent 1 Km. of the world’ (Norman 2006, p. 3 of 9). The virtualisation of the map, accessible within the technological prism of the smart phone or desktop, transfers this fable to reality.

This visualisation however raises issues of a 1:1 world maps reliability. ‘The new technique has already revealed important results: errors in the existing geographical databases. These errors were revealed when geographers in Cambridge compared the full scale map with the terrain and discovered that they didn't fit precisely’ (ibid.). In supposedly constructing virtual reliability these constructed spaces instead constructed one in alternate parallel reality.

70 Virtual cartography not only inadvertently, but also purposefully visualises alternate realities. Take Natural Earth II ‘a raster map dataset that portrays the world environment in an idealized manner with little human influence. Imagine the urban landscapes of New York, Paris, and Tokyo restored to temperate forest, southern Russia as the open steppe it once was, and the Amazon River basin covered with unbroken rainforest’ (Paterson 2012, p. 1 of 4). The Wild World creeps back into the urban landscape through parallel depictions of space, layering an augmented virtual reality alongside the physical city.

The program allows you to explore an alternate world, not at all dissimilar to what artists do in their subjective creation of alternate realities. ‘Traditional maps assert “This is how the world is” and expect the reader to agree. Artists maps countermand that complicity, saying, ‘This is my vision, and I encourage you to construct your own’ (Harmon and Clemans 2009, p. 11). Virtual reality shifts physical and artistic spatial interaction. Layering one experience within another. The psychogeographic exploration of the street exists on multiple levels of shifting perception as we are able to encounter physical and virtual information simultaneously.

Part Three – Folding Up

The unpacking of data from within a multilayered environment, leads to infinite worlds within worlds. ‘The model for the sciences of matter is the ‘origami’, as the Japanese philosopher might say, or the art of folding paper’ (Deleuze and Conley 2006, p. 7). Space is both literally and figuratively folded within the paper map. Within a map paper folding stacks layers of information in dimensions alongside one another.

The physical folding within a paper map mirrors the ability of incomprehensible amounts of information to be contained within minute amounts of physical space. ‘It is stated that what is folded is only virtual and currently exists only in an envelope, in something that envelops it’ (ibid. p. 24). Deleuze recounts data, such as DNA encoded in a cell, as folded within itself until such time as it manifests itself. Each point of space/time interaction being unique in its unfolding of specific spatial relationships. The process of ‘[u] nfolding is thus not the contrary of folding, but follows the fold up to the

71 following fold’ (ibid. p. 6).Perception of the world is tied to its specific historic unfolding, its present and infinitely potential future states.

The traversed city space is a site of specific perceptual interaction and revision of space from within each individual. ‘The city seems to be a labyrinth that can be ordered. The world is an infinite series of curvatures or inflection, and the entire world is enclosed in the soul from one point of view’ (ibid. p. 26). The individual perceives the world from an “in here” point of worldview, however there exists an overarching structure in that in generalized terms we all function from within the same set of sensory constraints. We each construct the world from perceptual data, filtered through the senses as informed by the culture we exist within.

The increasing virtualization of global cartography folds vast amounts of data within globally accessible mapping technologies. We are mapping out the entirety of our culture within a purposefully constructed parallel reality. This virtually accessible, malleable reality exists along side the physical and equally affects individual’s spatial perception and memory.

72 Shift Two – Psycho-mapping

Tracking movement used to occupy the realm of spies and the army, at least that’s what TV taught us. Today however we travel and navigate the world via technology shot into orbit around the earth. Complex systems of virtual navigation and geo-locating devices are today accessible from a device residing within our pocket. The manner in which we interact with space is still tied to a Mercator world map view yet today exists within a multilayered, virtual cartographic visualization.

Part One – Tracing GPS

‘In April 2011 researchers revealed that the iPhone was storing location data without the users knowledge’ (Bridle 2011, p. 2). This pre-recorded location data was made accessible by the program iPhone tracker in conjunction with the, open source, mapping project Open Street Map. The GPS travel data was initially retrieved, from James Bridle’s phone, through the openly available software iPhone tracker and turned into the book Where the F**k was I (ibid). The individual’s movement informs a personal map of the world tracked without their knowledge.

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Figure 36. Bridle, J 2011. Where the F**k was I. (Collection of the Author).

The use of readily accessible tracking software, in conscious use this time, is utilized within contemporary artistic practice where artists are shifting interaction with globalized space and the impact it has upon our psycho-geographic perceptions of the world through the use of GPS.

Figure 37. Musil, B 2007, Market Sentiments, 2007. Video still. (Collection of the artist).

Through personalizing technology artists are able to shift spatial perception. Barbara Musil animates geometric line-work over aerial mapping images to the tune of orchestral music in her video work Market Sentiments, 2007. The work disrupts preexisting aerial fragmentation of the landscape. ‘The sequence of abstract formal elements, ortho-photos and cadastral maps in the video ultimately deals with a sellout and gambling with the stakes of speculation in the land’ (Musil 2008, p. 7). In using references to GPS tracing Musil Subverts GPS and virtual topographic mapping while

74 folding multiple physical, virtual and spatial references within her animated imaging of the aerial landscape, shifting perceptions of the individual on the ground to the individual in the air.

Part Two - The Traveller

Travel in an increasingly connected world, is both a familiar and disorientating experience. Vast portals open up through which we enter and exit the ambiguous architectural environments of international space. Sedated individuals move on mass through these spaces to travel on vessels to far of lands.

We do not experience the journey of flight as being an act of exploration, so much as a regimented go to sleep here wake up there phenomenon. ‘The plane interior itself is a bland corporate enclosure whose design stems from early utopian visions of the aircraft as a streamlined “flying house” (in Le Corbusier’s formulation)’ (Bryant et al. 2010, p. 180). This focus on speed, minimal comforts and a streamlined experience detaches people from the interaction with the physical landscape through which they are passing.

The initial perception of unfamiliar space is made familiar by globalised airport architecture where the distance traveled becomes ambiguous due to the generalized environments of advertising, restaurants and shopping. ‘The effect of this standardization, with at best token references to the actual locales, is to produce the feeling of anomic displacement’ (ibid.). This displacement numbs the individual to the new place as it seems no different, at first to the last.

In Walking to New York, Will Self tackles the physicality of entering and exiting a city —pre and post flight — through direct interaction with the airports geographic location in relation to the destination. Self relates a description of the traversed path he walks from the airport into the city. His psychogeographic interaction with space unfolds though negotiation of freeway and overpass, concrete and drainage ditch, fields and traffic all in an effort to simply, physically, walk from the airport to New York (Self and Steadman 2007). This journey illustrates the constraints of the system. Space and its

75 uses are dictated in terms of the use and manner in which we are able to exist and interact within the systematized city space.

Once within the city limits the oft-quoted Flaneur comes into his own as the traversing individual. As asserted, by both Baudelaire and Walter Benjamin, the Flaneur’s origins lie within Edgar Allan Poe’s the man of the crowd (Coverley 2010, p. 58). This man of the crowd interacts today as the psychogeographic Flaneur, who embodied originally as a Parisian individual, today goes against the crowd to forge new forms of spatial interaction.

The position of this individual within society has suitably been described as ‘the wanderer whose movements transform his surroundings provides a link with a lost tradition that reclaims the city as the site for political and aesthetic experimentation’ (ibid. p. 59).

Then there is, the less encountered, off the street, original virtual explorer: -

In the spring of 1790, Xaviers De Maistre, confined to his room under house arrest, embarked on a voyage around his bedroom, a trip every bit as arduous as that of Magellan and Cook but one that took place almost entirely within the boundaries of his own imagination. The result being A journey around my room… These accounts he would proudly proclaim, would introduce the world to a new form of travel involving little of the risk or expense facing the conventional traveler (ibid. p. 66).

Today we can all partake in this virtual exploration by flying around the globe with one click. The shift in geographic location, which occurs through the traveller’s eyes, allows for a layering of one experiential space over another, which becomes all the more obviously differentiated once the individual finds himself or herself with unfamiliar territory. ‘There would appear to be a landscape whenever the mind is transported from one sensible matter to another, but retains the sensorial organization appropriate to the first, or at least a memory of it’ (Lyotard 1991, p. 183).

To leave our own geographic context places us in a reflective position. ‘Estrangement [depaysement] would appear to be a precondition for landscape’ (ibid.). Through the act of travel we become estranged with our previous surroundings and disorientated within

76 new unfamiliar settings. This creates a context where the traveller is able to critically reflect, through memory, perceptual interaction and navigation, on the manner in which familiar landscapes are constructed in opposition or sympathy to the new one they find themselves within.

Part Three - A New World View

People’s perception of their countries geographic location, in relation to one another is constructed around the Mercator World Map, whose initial function was to standardize nautical navigation, and is still the dominant world map today.

Figure 38. Fuller, B 1943. Dymaxion world. map. (The Buckminster fuller Institute).

Buckminster fuller, most famous for his geodesic dome, is one amongst many who sought to reconcile disparities in this particular world-view through his invention of the Dymaxion Map. First published in Life magazine article Life Presents R. Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion World, (Life 1943, p. 41) sought to do away with the current distortions and geographic bias still present within virtual mapping.

In 1954 he realized his final ‘satisfactory deck plan of the six and one half sextillion tons Spaceship Earth’ (Kovacev and Morris 2010, p. 1). Fuller’s world is one unfolded through triangular planes, which when re-constructed forms the world as a polyhedron.

77 Fuller ‘wished to provide a view of the whole earth at once which would have the ability to reveal major trends in world affairs and show the shortest air routes between land masses’ (Sonvilla-Weiss 2008, p. 46). This map creates a perceptual shift in our concept of global geography similar to the shrinking perception of global space accessed in virtual mapping.

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Shift Three – Recollected

A defining characteristic of modern society is its scientifically delineated segmentation of the world through systematic, spatial mapping and navigation systems. Cartographies visual and conceptual relationship to art is continually revised through artists, architects and scientists practices. There exists a preoccupation with visualizing perceptual topographic data through multiple disciplines. This reflects a constant and evolving search to understand the “out there” reality.

Part One - Constant

Maps and their associated cities have and continue to constantly undergo renovation both physically and theoretically throughout the practices of artists, town planners and architects. Constant Nieuwenhuys emerges from this context of invented spatial propositions for the radical redesign of the city and its modes of interaction. Constants influence runs throughout this paper, his practice included art movements from CoBrA to being a ‘founding member of the Situationist International’ (Wigley 1998, p. 12), the politically charged geographic and cultural milieu from which psychogeography emerged.

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Figure 39. Nieuwenhuys, C., 1969. Symbolische Voorstelling Van New Babylon (Symbolic Representation of New Babylon. Collage map on paper, 139.7 × 152.4 cm. (Gemeente Museum, The Hague).

Constants utopian architectural project New Babylon ‘develops the logic of the derive into a form of “architectural science fiction” ’ (ibid.). This invented redesign for the city space takes the form of a new city in the sky, a series of interconnected architectural platforms creating a second environment. ‘Daily life does not occur in New Babylon. It is New Babylon. Constant rejects any distinction between design and desire, architecture and psychology, space and social life’ (ibid. p. 14).

This new city of psycho-geographic spatial interaction sought to leave the old city behind through creative architectural utopia. Constant’s vision radically restructures space to create a new physical structure for the reality we exist within. This restructuring utilized physical maps to restructure cities towards individual psychogeographic spatial interaction. ‘Air conditioning, artificial light, and mobile structures would enable the production of endlessly changing and disorientating landscapes’ (ibid. p. 17). The fixed nature of our cities was removed and in its place the

80 layered interaction of our perception and memory took over in order to redefine our physical spatial reality.

Part Two – Shifting Topographies

Figure 40. Johns, J 1967-1971. Air Ocean World, Dymaxion map. Encaustic, pastel and collage on canvas 22 parts, 500 x 1000 cm. (Museum Ludwig, Cologne).

The perception of reality from Gestalt theories of perception to de Bono’s memory surfaces to Schama's layered concept of the landscape, inherently exists on multiple perceptual levels. Fullers Dymaxion map filtered through this layered perception into works such as Jasper Johns literal spatial appropriation of form within the work Air Ocean world (1967-71). While in a less literal compositional reference Mark Bradford engages with layered landscape perception with tactile reference to his physically perceived environment.

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Figure 41. Bradford, M 2005. Portable water. Mixed media, 330.2 x 497.84 cm. (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. collection of Hunter Gray).

Bradford creates paintings, which are constructed out of geographic and cultural detritus of the area in which he both works and lives, South Central, Los Angeles. Bradford ‘layers sheets of billboard paper, as if to create a visual, emotional, and aesthetic distance from their rough, heavy materiality, loaded with time, scars, stories, and histories’ (Bradford and Vergne 2010, p. 21).

Bradford’s relocation of site-specific topographic information shifts this information form the street to his physically layered works in which the materials from ‘different origins are exposed as scraped, raw skin, revealing the archeology of their own making’ (ibid.). This process physically and conceptually shifts the topographical information folded within his work from a specific set of socio cultural circumstance to an abstract cartographic symbolism, which resonates globally.

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Figure 42. Bradford, M 2006. Kryptonite. Mixed media, 249 x 301 cm. (The Saatchi Gallery, London).

Bradford’s practice emerges from psychogeographic interaction with the city: -

Bradford is programmatically closer to International Situationism and it’s revolutionary desire for a new society that would take shape of the architect Constants new Babylon, a new form of urbanism in which traditional architecture would disintegrate along with the social institutions that support it. A fantasy as utopia. Bradford’s collages and maps, his own scripture of space, delimit the afterimage. The anticipated memory of an urban sprawl trapped between the daily negotiation of a public space that is built on the erasure of communities and human value, needs and stains, and the urge, or at least the desire, to model and map a different public sphere (Bradford and Vergne 2010, p. 22).

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Figure 43. Bradford, M 2007. Bread and Circuses. Mixed media collage on canvas, 337.8 x 642.6 cm. (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York).

The appropriated posters shifts our perception of the materiality of physical landscapes representation within art. ‘Bradford’s erasure process exposes how one memory contributes to the erasure of another one’ (ibid. p. 21). Thus proposing a new form of mapping space, which looks on spatial interaction as being a personal one located within a perceptually evolving psychogeographic discourse.

Figure 44. Anastasi, W 2002. Pocket Drawing - Sept. 24. Pencil on paper, 57.2 x 72.4 cm. (Museum of Modern Art, New York).

84 Bradfords spatial mapping is similarly explored through the tactile engagement with the city, which is present in the work of William Anastasi. Anastasi made drawings in his pocket while sitting on the subway. These works mapped his movement in time and space and became an immediate form of data representation, which pertains specifically to movement and drawing as a direct tactile and visual response. The movement of a man floating in the ocean bobbing along to the ocean currrent has a certain synergy with the movement of a man swaying in the subway drawing in his pocket.

Part Three – Mapping Today

Jeremy Wood has been using his body as a ‘geodetic pencil’ (Lauriault and Wood 2009, p. 360) to draw with for the past 12 years subverting GPS tracking’s functionality. Mowing the Lawn, 2010 is part of a decade long project in which the artist recorded his GPS movement while mowing the lawn. ‘Where he is and where things are positioned are inaccurate from a GPS point of view, since GPS is engineered imprecision. This lack of specificity changes the location of things in space ever so slightly, but just enough to confound physical reality.’ (ibid.) This GPS interaction utilizes contemporary technology to articulate the physically navigated contemporary landscape.

Figure 45. Wood, J., 2010. Mowing the Lawn. GPS drawing, 101.6 x 50.8 cm. (Collection of the Artist, Oxford shire).

85 The exhibition catalogue for Mapping, Memory and Motion in Contemporary Art, (Tanguy, 2010) describes the process of mapping as follows; ‘Data of a designated region is collected, measured and edited. Next it is distilled into symbols place names and legends that maximize communication to an intended audience. And finally it is transformed into a two or three dimensional rendering’ (ibid. p. 6). This descriptive, as applied to the contemporary landscape, fits as a definition of the processes undertaken within various artistic practices engaging with mapping spatial interaction through various disciplinary approaches.

Figure 46. Sherk, S., 2010. The Katonah Sound Project: Ambient Map. Speakers, field recordings, four-channel soundscape installation, Dimensions variable. [Sound Installation] (Courtesy of the artist and Kim Foster Gallery, New York, New York).

Scott Sherk’s sound piece interacts with cartographic language through auditory spatial relocation. Playing with notions of scale, sound and site specific investigation, Sherk recorded the auditory topography of the gallery buildings four corners then installed this sound piece within one room. Playing with scale and soundscape perception through sound mapping technologies.

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Figure 47. Johnson, K., 2004. Blow Up 30, Subatomic Decay Patterns (detail). Ink on board, 60.96 x 121.92 cm. (Courtesy of the artist and Morgan Lehman Gallery, New York, New York).

Furthermore an artist exploring the physics of spatial mapping and the visualisation of data collection is Kysa Johnson who directs her gaze towards subatomic particles decay patterns. ‘These patterns can be viewed through cloud and bubble chambers as well as large hadron colliders. Tracking the collision of unstable particles, they represent fundamental pathways of the known universe’ (ibid, p. 10). The scientific analysis on the nature of the physical universe seeks to map the intangible, the unknown, the unseen space we exist within. The landscapes physical form, down to the level of the particle, is interacted with across various artistic practices through contemporary dispositions toward questioning and visualising reality.

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Phasing Mapping to Practice

We plot courses, and travel along them before ever having been to the location. We are able to project ourselves, now not only on paper but also to virtually teleport across the globe and stand on a street corner on the other side of the world. Travel forces our psycho-geographic interaction with space to arise to new technological levels. The virtual world exists now as a manifestation of literary fables, utopian visions and infinite potential of parallel realities to explore.

88 In questioning our understanding of the physically perceived universe, there inevitably leads to artistic innovation in regard to spatial visualization. Shown historically through the relationships encountered between Einstein, Picasso and Duchamp. Within contemporary practice we see artists like Bradford, Walter, Wood and Johnson, who interact with psychogeographic mapping in their varied approaches to questioning the way we visualize the contemporary landscape.

I am interested in the physical within the negative space between genres and disciplines of painting and sculpture. The physical manifestation of the parts of this investigation are articulated through the term abstract landscape painting at a basic level yet are propositions for so much more. The contemporary landscape encapsulates the ambiguous nature of topographical aesthetic interaction and visualization of today’s multidimensional perception of a reality. This being a multifaceted ambiguous space comprised of aspects of memory, space and mapping in all the forms encountered along the way.

89 Practice and Mapping

Figure 48. Lett, B 2012. Everywhere for going. Mixed media on linen and canvas 140 x 250 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

The act of travel forces constant reorientation within unfamiliar terrain. The impact of this upon my practice was to further my exploration into spatial abstraction. Within my experimentally driven practice interaction with the notion of the landscape as a memory constructed from multiple spatial interactions has been explored from the perspective of the outsider. The physical experience of moving through space, of

90 traversing environments is littered not just with a visual topography but also theoretical concepts of reality and spatial perception.

Figure 49. Lett, B 2012. Where they go. Mixed media on linen and canvas 150 x 180 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

The physically navigated spaces I have encountered through travel have been further physically layered within material space and folds of the canvas and linen. The mapping of perceived realities collected through unfamiliar topographies and laid down in a constant process of revision have informed of the continued exploration of spatial construction within my practice. The surfaces which I work upon become analogous to memory surfaces. The marks and forms present within them are a response to familiar and unfamiliar spatial information collected through an internationale psychogeographic derive.

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Figure 50. Lett, B 2012. The way from there. Mixed media on linen and canvas 140 x 140 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

Travel relocates individual spatial perception within the unfamiliar allowing psychogeographic subversive spatial interaction to take place in a conscious manner. Through space encountered at a time is constantly compared,, criticized, analysed in comparison to ones own or the one you just experienced prior to the one you find yourself within. The process of cutting, layering and restructuring work with pieces from another became analogous to the recalling of traversed topographies and half remembered spaces.

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Figure 51. Lett, B 2011. On your way. Mixed media on linen and canvas 40 x 40 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

The traversal of space, with constant reference to mapping technologies, led to the recording of topographical data including GPS (screen shot below) and sound recordings, which were then used as the catalyst for the following drawings. The process involved in the collection of each set of sound and GPS data recordings went as follows. Start walking. Decide if you are taking the metro, if you are not, then start recording. If so take the metro and at a point of intuitive decision, based upon random, arbitrary situational factors, you will exit or change lines. This process continues until the individual decides to exit. Leave decisions to the last moment. Once you have taken the exit start recording GPS and sound.

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Figure 52. Lett, B 2011. Screen shot of Figure 53. Lett, B 2011. 48º 50' 54.87" N 2º GPS recorded walk in Paris. MotionX-GPS 19' 39.55" E. Mixed media on paper 28 x App data visualised on Google Earth. 38 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

During these walks there was always an intent to react intuitively then contradict this when the spatial interaction becomes dictated and restrictive. There was a conscious effort to seek the unfamiliar and to walk down roads or through alleys which might not seem appealing. I would walk with the only intent to explore and see a side of the city which didn’t flow or make sense before eventually returning to your point of departure. Through creating the stipulation that I would walk and eventually form a closed loop I new I would be able to create an island of perceptual interaction. I was able to explore the unfamiliar terrain in an arbitrary and consciously subversive manner so as to disrupt the dictated flow of the city.

Figure 54. Lett, B 2011. 48º 53' 5.22" N 2º Figure 55. Lett, B 2011. 48º 50' 33.71" N 2º 22' 11.23" E. Mixed media on paper 28 x 21' 7.69" E. Mixed media on paper 28 x 38 38 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney). cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

94 The work becomes a form of reviewing traversed space. Creating a new language for visually articulating an auditory topography of spatial interaction. The soundscape formed an auditory spatial topography which combined with the GPS path. This data is then used to create mixed media drawings. The GPS creates dictates the general shape within which corresponding mark making occurs in direct response to the soundscape recording. The mark making was made in direct response to the sounds in the recording and lasted for the exact duration of the recording and no longer.

Figure 56. Lett, B 2011. 48º 52' 25.15" N 2º Figure 57. Lett, B 2011. 48º 50' 30.46" N 2º 18' 51.53" E. Mixed media on paper 28 x 18' 52.12" E. Mixed media on paper 28 x 38 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney). 38 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

The work is created from various materials, from those more commonly associated with stationary supply, texta, biro and pencil, to more traditional pastels and oil pastels. This was a decision made in order to reference shifts in practice from traditional to contemporary mapping and landscape painting materiality. The immediacy of various materials was utilized in their capacity to equate a particular pitch or vibration to a particular hue or mark. Re-positioning the contemporary landscape as a system for visualising abstract data through abstract perceptual mapping.

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Figure 58. Lett, B 2011. 48º 50' 20.26" N 2º Figure 60. Lett, B 2011. 48º 51' 22.63" N 2º 18' 42.34" E. Mixed media on paper 28 x 21' 23.84" E . Mixed media on paper 28 x 38 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney). 38 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

Figure 59. Lett, B 2011. 48º 53' 0.68" N 2º Figure 61. Lett, B 2011. 48º 50' 56.2" N 2º 19' 36.51" E. Mixed media on paper 28 x 20' 3.46" E. Mixed media on paper 28 x 38 38 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney). cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

The paper acts as a ‘memory-surface’ (Bono 1990, p. 292) onto which the data is articulated. A surface interacted with as if again walking the paths previously trodden. In compacting these multidimensional aspects of spatial experience into the flattened plane of the paper work I am reducing the spatial plane in order to visualise intangible aspects of space derived from a psycho-geographic interaction with the contemporary landscape as informed by physical interaction with time and space

96 Conclusion

Throughout this thesis you have meandered a path of an exploratory and experimental sort. The Phases, Shifts and Parts have been laid out within the diagram in order to visualize the manner in which you have been directed through this information and also to show how the terrain of this paper may have been interacted with through any number of different paths. This has been done in order to structurally reinforce the psychogeographic basis of this thesis.

The contemporary landscape is defined through the multiple parts of information, which you have encountered throughout this thesis. Our perceptually layered memories of the contemporary landscape are as constructed as much from memory of the wild world as they are layered in recollection from the streets, cities and artistic representations we encounter.

From naturalistic understandings of the landscapes origins we now exist in a reality with multiple levels of spatial understanding mapped out through virtual systems of topographic navigation. The parallel universe created within virtual online worlds mirrors physics theoretical propositions about multidimensional space and infinite parallel realities. Shifts in the understanding of our reality in conjunction with technological innovation have revolutionised physics and psychogeographic artistic practice.

Furthermore the act of travel and dislocation allows us to see spaces anew. In the exploration of unfamiliar terrain there is the possibility to review our own parochial spatial understanding and question why we interact with the spaces around us in the way that we do. The globally accessible world allows us to question reality and the psychogeographic affect of existing in an ever increasingly accessible world on our own spatial understanding.

As such this practice and paper sits at a point of reflection upon previous concepts and visualisations of a perceived reality. My visualisations are a reflection of a specific space time, seeking to question where we sit today as a result of the multifaceted history of landscape perception and its continued relevance as a site of artistic experimentation

97 today. The contemporary dérive is the concept through which multiple theories and artistic practices have been encountered.

This thesis plotted the construction of our spatial memory of the contemporary landscape as a multifaceted and ambiguous categorical proposition.. My practice attempts to reposition the contemporary landscape’s relevance today as informed by the vast history of landscape exploration in the context of it existing today as multifaceted an ambiguous term. The work reflects a questioning of the nature of reality perceived “in here” as a result of the constant redefinition and theoretical variations of how we articulate the multiple virtual and physical definitions of a reality “out there”.

Image List

98 Figure 1. Ziegler, T, 2004. Designated for leisure. Oil on scotch brite, 285 x 400 cm. [Painting] (Saatchi Gallery, London). Available at: [Accesses 25 May 2012].

Figure 2. Mathews, P, 2010. 8 Hours in the Atlantic Ocean. Pen and rust on paper, 33 x 102.9 cm. [Drawing] (Patrick Heide Gallery, London). Available at: [Accessed 04 May 2012].

Figure 3. Kirkeby, P, 1984. Untitled. Oil on Canvas. [Painting:] (Museum Ludwig, Cologne). Photographed by: Lett. B., 2011. (Tate Modern, London).

Figure 4. Lawler, K, 2009. Between Lines #8 (Jones Soak, position approximate), Great Sandy Desert, Western Australia. [Aerial photograph] (Gallery Stiftelsen 3,14, Norway). Available at: [Accessed 07 May 2012].

Figure 5. Walter, S 2008. The Island, London. Graphite on paper, 101 x 153 cm. [Drawing] (British Library collection, Maps CC.6.a.30, London). In Barber, P, Harper, T 2010. Magnificent Maps: Power, Propaganda and Art. British Library.

Figure 6. Walter, S 2008. The Island, London (detail). Graphite on paper, 101 x 153 cm. [Drawing] (British Library collection, Maps CC.6.a.30, London). In Barber, P, Harper, T 2010. Magnificent Maps: Power, Propaganda and Art. British Library.

Figure 7. Klee, P, 1935. Das Licht und die Schärfen. Watercolor and pencil on paper on cardboard. 32 x 48 cm. [Painting] (Held by Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern). Available at: [Accessed 13 June 2012].

Figure 8. Lett, B, 2010. Refraction 2.0. Ink, pastel, charcoal on unprimed canvas, 90 x 120 cm. (Private collection, Sydney).

Figure 9. Lett, B, 2010. Refraction 2.1. Ink, pastel, charcoal on unprimed canvas, 90 x 120 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

Figure 10. Lett, B, 2010. Refraction 2.2. Ink, pastel, charcoal on unprimed canvas, 90 x 120 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

99

Figure 11. Lett, B, 2010. Refraction 2.3. Ink, pastel, charcoal on unprimed canvas, 90 x 120 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

Figure 12. Lett, B, 2010. Refraction 2.4. Ink, pastel, charcoal on unprimed canvas, 90 x 120 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

Figure 13. CERN, 2012 A Proton-proton Collision Event at CMS Experiment. Digital artwork, Dimensions variable. (CERN, Geneva). Available at: http://public.web.cern.ch/public/>[Accesseed 7 July 2012].

Figure 14. Duchamp, D, 1913. 3 Standard Stoppages. Wood box 28.2 x 129.2 x 22.7 cm, with three threads 100 cm, glued to three painted canvas strips 13.3 x 120 cm, each mounted on a glass panel 18.4 x 125.4 x 0.6 cm, three wood slats 6.2 x 109.2 x 0.2 cm, shaped along one edge to match the curves of the threads, Dimensions variable. [Painting and Sculpture] (The Museum of Modern Art, New York). Available at: [Accessed 22 May 2012].

Figure 15. Debord, G, 1957. Psychogeographic guide of Paris. [Collaged Map of Paris] In: Debord, G., 1957. Denmark-Discourse on the passions of love: psychogeographic descents of drifting and localisation of ambient unities. Denmark: Permild & Rosengreen. Available at: [Accessed 22 May 2012].

Figure 16. Kubrick, S, 1968. 2001: A Space Odessy (Film still). [Adventure, Sci-Fi Film] ( Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc). Available at: [Accessed 17 May 2012].

Figure 17. Serra, R, 2008. Promenade. Steel. Dimensions variable. In: Monumenta 2008, Richard Serra. The effect of perspective. [Steel sculpture installation] (Grand Palais, Paris). Available at: [Accessed 17 May 2012].

Figure 18. Serra R, 2005. The matter of Time (Installation seven sculptures). Weatherproof steel, Varying dimensions. [Sculptural Installation] (Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao). Available at: [Accessed 17 May 2012].

100 Figure 19. Stella, S, 1959. The Marriage of Reason and Squalor, II. Enamel on canvas, 230.5 x 337.2 cm. [Painting](Museum of Modern Art, New York). Available at: [Accessed 21 June 2012]

Figure 20. Stella, S, 1967. Harran II. Polymer and fluorescent polymer paint on canvas, 304.8 x 609.6 cm. [Painting] (Guggenheim Museum, New York). Available at: [Accessed 17 May 2012]

Figure 21. Stella, F, and Calatrava, S., 2008-2011. The Michael Kolhaas Curtain. Mixed media on tarpaulin and metal lattice, 30 m mural enclosed in metal framework. [Painting/Sculpture Installation] (New National Gallery, Berlin). Available at: [Accessed 25 May 2012].

Figure 22. Rich, M, 2010. James and Audrey Foster Prize Exhibition (Installation). Latex and spray paint on cut paper and linen tape, Dimensions variable. [Painting/Collage] (The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston). Available at [Accessed 17 May 2012]

Figure 23. Pollock, J, 1948-1949. Untitled. Dripped ink and enamel on paper, 56.8 x 76.2 cm. [Painting] (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). Available at: [Accessed 17 May 2012].

Figure 24. Louis, M, 1959. Saraband. Acrylic resin on canvas, 256.9 x 378.5 cm. [Painting] (Guggenheim Museum New York, New York). Available at: [Accessed 09 May 2012]

Figure 25. Lett, B, 2010. Awesome landscape series (1 of 4). Mixed media on paper, 40 x 50 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

Figure 26. Lett, B, 2010. Awesome landscape series (2 of 4). Mixed media on paper, 40 x 50 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

Figure 27. Lett, B, 2010. Awesome landscape series (3 of 4). Mixed media on paper, 40 x 50 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

101

Figure 28. Lett, B, 2010. Awesome landscape series (4 of 4). Mixed media on paper, 40 x 50 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

Figure 29. Lett, B, 2011. There’s no place like it . Mixed media on paper, 75 x 120 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

Figure 30. Lett, B, 2011. A destination for the new millenium . Mixed media on paper, 75 x 120 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

Figure 31. Lett, B, 2011. Amazing landscape. Mixed media on rag paper. 90 x 120 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

Figure 32. Lett, B, 2011. The Sentinels (1-5). Mixed media on plywood multi-faceted plinths. 150 x 40 x 30 cm each, installation dimensions variable. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

Figure 33. Boncompagni, G, 1581. Civitas Vetus (Civitavecchia). [Fresco] (The Gallery of Maps, The Vatican). In: Paolucci, A., 2010. The Gallery of Maps. Tipographia Vaticana.

Figure 34. Piranessi, G. B, 1756. Pianta di Roma (plan of Rome). Ink on paper, 465 x 680 mm. [Etching and Engraving] Available at: [Accessed 10 May 2012].

Figure 35. Piranessi, G. B, 1756. Reconstruction of a map of the center of Imperial Rome. Ink on Paper. [Etching and Engraving] (St. Louis Public Library, St. Louis) Available at: [Accessed 9 May 2012 ].

Figure 36. Bridle, J, 2011. Where the F**k was I. [Book] Available at: [Accessed 24 April 2012]

Figure 37. Musil, B, 2007, Market Sentiments. Video still. [Video] (Collection of the artist) In: Musil, B., 2008. Barbara Musil. Bucher Verlag, Hohenems - Vienna, Austria.

102 Figure 38. Fuller, B, 1943. Dymaxion world. [map] (The Buckminster fuller Institute). Available at: [Accessed 11 May 2012].

Figure 39. Nieuwenhuys, C, 1969. Symbolische Voorstelling Van New Babylon (Symbolic Representation of New Babylon. Collage map on paper, 139.7 × 152.4cm. [Collage] (Gemeente Museum, The Hague). Available at: [Accessed 14 June 2012]

Figure 40. Johns, J, 1967-1971. Air Ocean World, Dymaxion map. Encaustic, pastel and collage on canvas, 22 parts, 500 x 1000cm. [Painting] (Museum Ludwig, Cologne).

Figure 41. Bradford, M, 2005. Portable water. Billboard paper, photomechanical reproductions, acrylic gel medium, and additional mixed media, 330.2 x 497.84cm. [Painting/Collage] (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. collection of Hunter Gray). Available at: [Accessed 5 February 2012].

Figure 42. Bradford, M, 2006. Kryptonite. Mixed media, collage on paper, 249 x 301 cm. [Painting/Collage] (The Satchi Gallery). Available at: [Accessed 5 February 2012].

Figure 43. Bradford, M, 2007. Bread and Circuses. Mixed media collage on canvas, 337.8 x 642.6cm. [Painting/Collage] (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York). Available at: [Accessed 5 February 2012].

Figure 44. Anastasi, W 2002. Pocket Drawing - Sept. 24. Pencil on paper, 57.2 x 72.4 cm. [Drawing] (Museum of Modern Art, New York) The Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawings Collection Gift. Available at: http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A15 5&page_number=6&template_id=1&sort_order=1>[Accessed on 3 August 2012].

103 Figure 45. Wood, J, 2010. Mowing the Lawn. GPS drawing, 101.6 x 50.8 cm. [Giclée print] (Collection of the Artist, Oxfordshire). Available at: [Accessed 9 June 2012].

Figure 46. Sherk, S, 2010. The Katonah Sound Project: Ambient Map. Speakers, field recordings, four-channel soundscape installation, Dimensions variable. [Sound installation] (Courtesy of the artist and Kim Foster Gallery, New York, New York). In: Tanguy, S., 2010. Mapping: Memory and Motion in Contemporary Art. Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, New York: Rose Press. Available at: [Accessed 13 June 2012].

Figure 47. Johnson, K, 2004. Blow Up 30, Subatomic Decay Patterns (detail). Ink on board, 60.96 x 121.92 cm. [Painting] (Courtesy of the artist and Morgan Lehman Gallery, New York, New York) In: Tanguy, S., 2010. Mapping: Memory and Motion in Contemporary Art. Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, New York: Rose Press. Available at: [Accessed 13 June 2012].

Figure 48. Lett, B, 2012. Everywhere for going. Mixed media on linen and canvas 140 x 250 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

Figure 49. Lett, B, 2012. Where they go. Mixed media on linen and canvas 150 x 180 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

Figure 50. Lett, B, 2012. The way from there. Mixed media on linen and canvas 140 x 140 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

Figure 51. Lett, B, 2011. On your way. Mixed media on linen and canvas 40 x 40 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

Figure 52. Lett, B, 2011. GPS recording of walk. MotionX-GPS App data visualised on Google Earth (Version 6.0.3.2197). Digital file created on 13/03/2012. Accessed on 25/07/2012.

Figure 53. Lett, B, 2011. 48º 50' 54.87" N 2º 19' 39.55" E. Mixed media on paper 28 x 38 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

Figure 54. Lett, B, 2011. 48º 53' 5.22" N 2º 22' 11.23" E. Mixed media on paper 28 x 38 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

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Figure 55. Lett, B, 2011. 48º 50' 33.71" N 2º 21' 7.69" E. Mixed media on paper 28 x 38 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

Figure 56. Lett, B, 2011. 48º 52' 25.15" N 2º 18' 51.53" E. Mixed media on paper 28 x 38 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

Figure 57. Lett, B, 2011. 48º 50' 30.46" N 2º 18' 52.12" E. Mixed media on paper 28 x 38 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

Figure 58. Lett, B, 2011. 48º 50' 20.26" N 2º 18' 42.34" E. Mixed media on paper 28 x 38 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

Figure 59. Lett, B, 2011. 48º 53' 0.68" N 2º 19' 36.51" E. Mixed media on paper 28 x 38 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

Figure 60. Lett, B, 2011. 48º 51' 22.63" N 2º 21' 23.84" E . Mixed media on paper 28 x 38 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

Figure 61. Lett, B, 2011. 48º 50' 56.2" N 2º 20' 3.46" E. Mixed media on paper 28 x 38 cm. (Collection of the artist, Sydney).

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