Locative Media and Spatial Narrative

Abstract

A survey of early cultural artifacts and their mining by contemporary locative media art and interactive public art practice. Specifically examined are issues of religious ritual, narrative and its spatialisation, including Aboriginal Australian, North American, Celtic Hindu and Christian sacred architectures and land art. The issue of mapping and its distortion by western colonial practice in relation to the colonised will also be examined . Examples of subjective mapping across history will be related to current mapping projects using GPS and other locative techniques, as well as recent practices in virtual and performative space. The narrative potentials of ancient architectural alignments, spatial organisation and acoustic resonance will be contrasted with a range of contemporary projects exploiting contemporary architectural spaces including work by Daniel Leibeskind and Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. The author will articulate a taxonomy of such works, based on the level of engagement and mobility of the interacting audience in relation to these works and through describing his current project Hosts.