Affective Territories by Margarida Carvalho

8/9/2019 Affective Territories by Margarida Carvalho

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Affec tive Territo riesMa rga rida Ca rvalho

But wha t c a n the ge op olitica l lens reve a l, when its a ma tte r of artistic invention?

(Holme s, 2008a)

Ha s the ide olog y of our time not b ec om e a n erratic , wa vering p at tern of c rissc rossing

footstep s, trac ed in sec ure m et ric p oints on a n a b strac t field ? The a esthetic form of the

drive is everywhere. But so is the hyper-rationalist grid of Imperial infrastructure.

(Holme s, 2003b)

1. Geopoetics.

The figure o f map 1, historically associated with colonial imperialism,

has gradually grown into a privileged trope of contemporary art which

articulates it either as personal cartography (singular trace)2, as an

ethnographic map of a community or institution3 - thus revealing the

1 This pa p er is ba sed on my o wn a rticle Ma p as Ima gin rios p ublished by o nline

magazine Virose, sec tion b# 21, in Oc tob er 2008. Ava ilab le a t:

http://virose.pt/vector/b_21/carvalho.html (Ac c essed 7 Ma rc h 2009).2 As is the c ase of a rtist Jerem y Woo d and his GPS d ra wing s. Quo ting from his we bsite:

Jeremy Woo d is an a rtist w ho sta rted GPS d ra wing in 2000. He maps his d a ily

mo ve me nts with GPS to e xpress a p ersona l c artog rap hy, and g ene ra tes new work ashe travels. Available at: http://www.gpsdrawing.com/jw.html (Accessed 24 February

2009).3 The una voida ble referenc e he re is to the o ften q uote d c ha pte r The Artist as

Ethnograp her from the b ook The Retu rn o f the Rea l by Hal Foster. In Fosters own

wo rds: These dev elop me nts a lso c onstitute a series of shifts in the siting of a rt: from the

surface of the medium to the space of the museum, from institutional frames to

discursive networks, to the point where many artists and critics treat conditions like

desire or disea se, A IDS or ho me less, as sites fo r art. Along with this figure o f siting h as

com e the analogy of mapping. In a n impo rtan t mom ent Rob ert Smithson a nd othe rs

pushed this c artograp hic op eration to a ge ologica l extrem e that transformed the siting

of a rt d ra ma tic ally. Yet this siting ha d limits too : it c ould b e rec oup ed b y ga llery and

museum, it played to the myth of the redemptive artist (a very traditional site), and soon. Otherwise mapping in recent art has tended toward the sociological and the


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complexity of the relationships within these -, or even by evoking its

c onstitutive power, a m ap of bec oming that trac es a p eop le to c om e4.

This not ion of ma p a s an a rtistic trope evo kes, for example, the

work of Lothar Baumgarten, a German artist whose conceptualist work is

shap ed by a subt le soc ia l critique m anifested in a partic ula rly po etic a nd

political way of molding ethnographical and historical materials. In this

respect we recall specifically the 20015 exhibition that the Fundao de

Serra lves (Porto) ded ica ted to this a rtist, titled By water b roug ht

collected broken buried, in which the first room displayed a vast map

spread out on the floor and partially hidden by a net (Voo Nocturno

,1968-69) next to a small pyramid of blue pigment (Tetrae do, 1968).

Cartographies, photographs, names, drawings, sounds, feathers, masks

and c harms pop ula te the universe o f Baumg arten, but a lways filtered by

a reflexive gesture: there is always a mirror, an object of daily use

ab and oned in the jungle, a nam e b eyond the c od e, a d isorienting inde x

on the map which all betray the presence of the artist, of his gaze, of his

system of va lues. In the w ords of Hal Foste r:

Suc h re flexivity is essen tial, for, as Bord ieu wa rned , ethno grap hic m ap p ing is

predisposed to a Cartesian opposition that leads the observer to abstract the

c ulture of stud y. Suc h ma pp ing ma y thus c on firm rathe r tha n conte st the

authority of mapper over site in a way that reduces the desired exchange of

d ialog ical field wo rk. (Foste r, 1996: 190)

Trevor Pag len, a Californian a rtist, refers to such a cartesian

opposition as God s Eye thus justifying his hesitation in working from a

cartographic point-of-viewduring his conversation with Visible

anthropological, to the point where an ethnographic mapping of an institution or a

c om munity is a p rima ry fo rm of site-spec ific a rt to d ay. (Foste r, 1996: 184-185)4Suc h is the sta nc e o f Brian Holme s in Ima g inary ma ps, glob a l solida rities : My

conviction is that we need radically inventive maps exactly like we need radical

political movements: to go beyond received ideas and orders, in fact, to go beyond

representation, to rediscover and share the space creating potentials of a

revo lutiona ry ima gination. (Holme s, 2003a)5Concerning which I wrote a short text published by the online magazine Interact, #4,

November 2001. Available at: http://www.interact.com.pt/interact4/ (Accessed 7Ma rc h 2009).


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Co llec tive/ Naeem M oha imen regarding the map co-authored with John

Emerson for project CIA Rendition Flights 2001-2006(2006), and included

on the book An Atlas of Radical Cartography (Mogel, L. & Bhagat, A.,

2008)6. In fact, this fascinating Atlas, comp osed o f ten map s created b y

artists and activists, as well as an equal number of essays which query

and analyze these irreverent and unsettling cartographies, brings

together reflexivity and activist gesture and may be read in agreement

with the notion of tactical media, just a s desc rib ed by the Institute for

Applied Autonomy (IAA) on its short essay Tactical Cartographies,

whic h examines the map Route s of Least Surveillanc e(2001-2007) by theIAA and Site-R. As the collec tive p uts it:

At root, tactical media is an interventionist practice that creates disruptionwithin existing systems of power and control. Less a methodology than anorientation, it is fundamentally pragmatic, utilizing any and all availabletechnologies, aesthetics and methods as dictated by the goals of a givenac tion. Tac tic al med ia a re ofte n ep hem eral a nd e vent-driven, existing only aslong as they c ontinue to be effec tive. They va nish into thin air onc e the ir utilityhas been exhausted, leaving only traces in the form of memories,do c ume ntat ion a nd journa listic a c c ounts. () Extending these no tions to spa tial

representation, tactical cartography refers to the creation, distribution, anduse of spatial data to intervene in systems of control affecting spatial meaningand p rac tice . (Institute fo r App lied Auton om y, 2008: 29-30)

Thus, this conc ep t of tac tica l cartog rap hy, whic h in ma ny ways

transverses the nume rous c reative c ont ributes of the Atlas, ca lls into p lay

a re-invention of territory, an heterotopic 7 enunciation, in which artistic

experimentation merges with activist guerrilla, and thus the notion of

map appears in its full pragmatic breadth, re-drawing whats hidden,

suspended, repressed and denied, a geology submerged by the

voracious fluxes of neo-liberal globalization from which may,

nevertheless, emerge new networks, affections, concepts and alliances

6An excerpt of this interview can be accessed at: http:/ /www.an-atlas.com/contents/pag_em_vis.html (Ac c essed 24 Feb rua ry 2009).7Crucial concept introduced by Michel Foucault at the conference Des espacesautres which took place at Cercles dtudes Architecturales, on March 14th 1967.

Available at: http://virose.pt/vector/periferia/foucault_pt.html (Accessed 28 February2009).


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under the aegis of a desire for a complex social bond of solidarity8. We

may reca ll here the words of Brian Holme s in The Affec tivist Ma nifesto ,

where we w itness a n enunc iation of affec t9, in the d eleuzian sense, a llied

(imp lic itly) to Fouc a ult s c onc ep t o f subjec tivat ion10:

Artist a c tivism is a ffec tivism, it o pens up exp a nd ing te rrito ries. These te rritories

are occupied by the sharing of a double difference: a split from the private self

in which e ac h pe rson w as formerly enc losed , an d from the soc ia l orde r whic h

8 We are referring here to the notion of solidarity in the sense meant by Brian Holmes in

Ima gina ry M a ps, G lob al Solida rities , whic h is: Conc eived in these terms, solid arity

me ans som ething q uite ta ng ib le: the ve ry cohe sion o f soc ial relations, whic h de ma nd a

limita tion o f sove reignt y (ad herenc e to c om mo n laws an d n orms) as we ll as a t ra nsfer

of p roperty (red istribution). Solida rity is thus a m od ernname for the c omp lex rec iproca lrelations, b oth m aterial and symb olic , whic h anthrop olog ists att em pt to de c ipher as the

diverse elements of a single social tie. In this sense, solidarity can be conceived as a gift

for the survival and well-being of others: but a redoubtable and even dangerous gift,

one that is most often forced upon us, extorted or imposed. It remains that at the best

mo me nts in mod ern soc iety (w hic h som et imes a re almo st inevita ble, given the disaste rs

that prece de d them), the solida rities p refig ured in the soc ial imag inary c an be ac tively

resha pe d, rep layed in bo th psyc hic and soc ia l sp ac e, even a s their c onc rete fo rms a re

reinvented and more-or-less freely chosen. In this way they can give rise to a better,

mo re eg ua lita rian system , a p rog ress in c ivilizat ion . Ava ilable at :

http:// pzwart.wd ka.hro.nl/ md r/ pub sfolde r/ b hima g inary/(Ac c essed 28 Feb ruary 2009).9 Quoting Gilles Deleuze and Flix Guattari in Quest-ce que la Philosophie?: Laffec t

ne dpasse pas moins les affections que le percept, les perceptions. Laffect nest pasle p assag e d un tat vc u un a utre, ma is le d eve nir non huma in de lho mm e. Acha b

nimite pas Moby Dick, et Penthsile ne fait pas la chienne: ce nest pas une

imitation, une symp at hie v c ue ni me me une identific ation imag inaire. Ce nest p as de

la resemblance, bien quil y ait de la resemblance. Mais justement ce nest quune

resem blanc e produite. Cest p lutt une extrem e c ontigut, da ns une treinte d e de ux

sensat ions sans resem blanc e, ou a u c ontraire d ans l loigne me nt d une lumire q ui

capte les deux dans un meme reflet. (...) Cest une zone dindtermination,

d indisc ernab ilit, c om me si de s c hoses, des b tes et d es pe rsonne s (Ac hab et Mob y

Dick, Penthsile et la chienne) avaient atteint dans chaque cas ce point pourtant

linfini que precede immdiatement leur diffrenciation naturelle. Cest ce quon

appe lle un a ffec t. ()Seu le la v ie c re de te lles zone s o to urbillonne nt les vivants, et

seul la rt p eut y a tte ind re e t y p ntrer d ans son e nterprise d e c o-c ra tion. (Deleuze,G. & Gu atta ri, F., 1991: 163-164)10 Just as Deleuze sta tes in La vie co mm e oe uvre d art : Et, c onfo rmment sa

m thod e, c e q ui intresse essentiellem ent Fouc a ult, c e ne st p as un reto ur aux Grec s,

mais nous aujourdhui: que ls sont nos mo d es d existenc e , nos possibilits de vie o u nos

proc essus de sub jec tiva tion, a vons-nous de s ma nires de nous c onstituer c om me soi,

et, c om me d irait Nietzc he, d es ma nires suffisa mm ent artistiques, p ar-del le sa voir et

le p ouvo ir? (Deleuze, 1990: 136). In a n interview w ith Ton i Negri, Deleuze no tes tha t on

peut en effet parler de processus de subjectivation quand on considre les diverses

manires d ont d es individus ou de s c ollec tivits se c onstituent c omme sujets: de te lls

proc essus ne va lent q ue d a ns la me sure o , qua nd ils se fo nt, ils c ha p pe nt la fois aux

saviors constitutes et aux pouvoirs dominats. Mme si par la suite ils engendrent de

nouveaux pouvoirs ou repassent dans de nouveaux saviors. Mais, sur le moment, ils ontbien une spo nta nit reb elled . (Deleuze, 1990: 238)


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imp osed tha t p a rtic ular type of p riva c y o r priva tion. When a territory of p ossibility

eme rge s it c hang es the soc ia l map , like a land slide, a flood or a vo lc ano do in

na ture. The e asiest w ay for soc iety to p rotec t its existing fo rm is den ia l,

pretending the change never happened: and that actually works in the

landscape of mentalities. An affective territory disappears if it isnt elaborated,

constructed, modulated, differentiated, prolonged by new breakthroughs and

c onjunc tions. There is no use d efe nd ing suc h te rritories and even believ ing in

them is only the b arest be ginning. What they urgently need is to b e de veloped ,

with forms, rhythms, inventions, disc ou rses, p rac tic es, styles, tec hno log ies in

short, with c ultura l c od es. (Ho lmes, 2008b)

The c ollec tive vo lume An Atlas of Radical Cartography reaches

into this a ffec tivism , as Brian Holmes ca lls it, c rea ting new territories of

possibilities by casting different looks into existing territories, illuminating

areas of darkness, indetermination and marginalization, but also

analytically scrutinizing the complex networks that support the

geographies of c ontem porary cap ita lism. The them e o f Atlas is

introduced immediately on the cover, which shows an inverted map of

the w orld ; sub tly, ironica lly, it s right a t the surfac e that w e p lunge into an

upside down world in which an extraordinary complexity entails a

growing opacity in obvious contradiction with the proliferation of

discourses on transparency and the immediacy of the society of

information (in fact, the current worldwide financial crisis is an

unmistakab le p roo f of this op ac ity).

Reminiscent of the urgent need for an aesthetics of cognitive

ma pp ing c ap ab le of c hallenging the p erplexity and incomp rehension

of the postmodern individual in face of the complex (multinational and

com munica tiona l) netw orks tha t trave rse his/ hers experienc e

suggested by Frederic Jameson, in 1984, on his famous article, later

turned into a book, Postm od ernism or, The Cultura l Log ic of La te

Capitalism , the Ashley Hunt map, titled A World Map: in which we

see... (2005), is perhaps, of all the maps in this Atlas, the one that most

op enly takes on an analytic a nd d ida c tic a pp roa c h.


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Ashley Hunt. A World Ma p: in whic h we see ..., 2005. Ima ge kind ly supp lied by the a rtist.

Ashley Hunt. A World Map: in which we see..., 2005 (detail). Image kindly supplied by

the artist.

Quoting Ashley Hunt:

A World Ma p In Whic h We See ... trac es our c ontem po rary mode s of po we r andpow erlessness, through which p ositions of we a lth and privilege a lwa ys exist in


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c onnec tion to the work or subordination o f a nothe r. (...) Primary resea rc h for the

map came from years of cultural and political work within activist and reform

move ments ag ainst the United Sta tes prison system , and em erge d from a

perceived need to expand the analytical basis for that work beyond the

limita tions of na tiona lly fram ed lega l, institutiona l and c ivil disc ourse . Espec ially

afte r Sep tem be r 11, 2001, a c ond ition of statelessnessappeared to increasingly

define t he na ture o f imprisonment a nd ma ss prison e xpa nsion (whic h is now a

glob al, albeit US d riven phe nom ena ), ma king the figure o f the p risone r less and

less discernable from displaced figures the world over whose resources and

pow er are p rog ressive ly se ized and exp rop ria ted . (Hunt, 2008: 145-146)11

The figure of the p laceless, namely the c land estine imm igrant and

the refugee, is mapped by the collective An Architektur12 through a

detailed cartography of the Departure Center at Frth (a center for

illegal immigrants with no passports or similar documentation) in the

German Bavaria, as well as by visualizations of the center-mediated

relationships between the asylum seekers and the several institutions

involved (medical, juridical, law enforcement, among others), as well as

the proc ed ures for seeking asylum in Germa ny.

An Architektur in co llabo ration with a42.org. Geography ofthe Frth Departure Center,

2004 (de ta il). Ima ge kind ly sup plied by the c ollec tive.

11 For mo re informa tion see : http:/ /aworldmap.com/(Ac c essed 28 February 2009).12 In collaboration with the students of the Masters Program in Architecture at

Nurem be rg s Fine Arts Ac ade my.

For more informa tion on the c ollec tive see :http:// ww w.ana rc hitektur.c om / aa _new s/ aa _news_en.html (Ac c essed 1 Ma rc h 2009).


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An Architektur in co lla bo ration with a42.org. Geography ofthe Frth Departure Center,

2004. Ima ge kind ly sup plied by the c ollec tive.

Quoting from the Geog raphy of the Frth Depa rture Centermap:

Ausreisezentren, or, departure centers, are camps for refugees and migrants

that, due to missing papers, cannot be deported. Asylum seekers held in these

c am ps a re a c c used by a uthorities of c onc ea ling t heir land of origin and resisting

ob ta ining pa sspo rts. So f ar the re are seve n d ep a rture c ente rs in Germa ny. (...)

Collectively, we have experimented with cartographic representation in order

to p ose these que stions: What kind of spa c es d oe s the G erma n syste m o f the

ad ministrat ion o f m ig ra nts produc e? How do po litic al and soc ial c irc umstanc es

ap pe ar ge o-grap hica lly? Whic h po tential for an alysis or eva lua tion is offered b y

a spa tial rep resenta tion? How c an a c ritique of e xclusion b e formulated b y

means of mapping? How can the varying levels of state and institutional

struc ture be broug ht into relation w ith those of individ ual expe rienc e? How is

subjec tive knowled ge transmitted b y this? (An Arc hitektur with a42.org, 2008)

In fac t, and as Ma ribel Ca sa s-Cortes e Seb astian C ob arrub ia s

point out so well on their analytic a l text d erived from this ma p and titled


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Drawing Escape Tunnels through the Borde rs: Ca rtographic Resea rc h

Experiments by Europea n Soc ial Movements 13, the notion itself of

frontier has been changing over time to a point where the current

logic of frontier largely exceeds the geographic boundaries of the

Sta te-Nation, frac tured into interna l frontiers tha t seg rega te work,

institutional and familial relationships, to name only a few, intensifying

social inequalities and accentuating feelings of mistrust and social

discrimination.

Target ing th is c limate of susp ic ion and fear tha t transverses the

contemporary experience by creating an ideological context for anexpa nsive app lica tion of surveillanc e dev icesnam ely through closed

c ircuit TV networks (CCTV), the Institute for App lied Autonomy (IAA), in

c ollaboration w ith Site-R, counterattacks in this Atlaswith the ironic and

activist map Routes of Lea st Surveillanc e (2001/ 2007), based on the

online ap plication iSee14developed by the collective for several cities

since 2001which d isp lays, in rea l-time , maps of the routes least

expo sed to surveillanc e c ameras.

13 It s wo rthwh ile rea d ing the exc erpt of Dra wing Esc ap e Tunne ls through t he Borde rs:

Ca rtog ra phic Experiments b y Europ ea n Soc ia l Mo vem ents by M aribe l Casas-Co rtes

and Seb astian Cob arrubias d erived from the ma p Geo grap hy of the Frth Dep arture

Center. Availab le a t: http:/ /w ww.an-atlas.c om/ c ontents/ anarch_c asasc obb .html

(Ac c essed 1 Ma rc h 2009).14

For de tailed informa tion o n the ap p lic ation:http://www.appliedautonomy.com/isee.html (Ac c essed 1 Ma rc h 2009).


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Institute fo r Ap p lied Auto nomy in co lla bo ration w ith Site-R, Route s of Least Surve illanc e,

2001/ 2007 (de tail). Ima ge kind ly supp lied by the c ollec tive.

The iSeeprojec t lays emphasis on a dynamic cartog raphy in which

localization and route are combined into subversive maps that highlight

the creation of experimental, communal and creative strategies for

appropriation and transformation of both media and new

tec hnolog iesnam ely those t hat a re c entral to the c urrent surveilla nc e

soc iety as a mea ns to enha nc e the sharing, c rea tion and free flux of

signals, things, people, actions, and affections. In an interview with Erich

W. Schienke, p ub lished in 2002 by the Surveillanc e & Soc iety15 magazine,

the IAA called attention to the potential of the iSee ap plica tion w hen

co mb ined w ith loc ative med ia(on which they were a lrea dy wo rking), as

the intersection between the two would eventually transform the

app lic a tion into a general purpose ma pp ing instrument, op en to the

c rea tive intervention of its users, spec ifica lly throug h GPS-ena b led PDAs,

who would thus be able to insert multiple data and narratives onto the

maps.

2. Allegories of the Surveillanc e Soc iety.

15

Available at: http:/ / ww w.surveillanc e-and-soc iety.org/ a rtic les1/iaa.pd f (Accessed 1Ma rc h 2009).


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In fact, with the development of systems such as the Geographic

Information System (GIS), which com bines g eographica lly indexed

da tabases, sa tellite imagery, and GPS, as well as the p roliferat ion o f c ell

phones, laptops, and wireless technologies, the artistic and activist

p rac tices a ssoc ia ted w ith locative mediahave be co me m ore p rominent

within the contemporary cultural and artistic scene, suggesting a

locational humanism (Holmes, 2003b) and imagining the potential for

co llec tive ac tion of the sma rt mob s (Rheingo ld , 2002) of the 21st

Century. In his a rticle Op en Ca rtographies: On Assem bling Things

throug h Loc at ive Med ia , Michael Dieter w rites:

While e xplic itly fra me d a s spe c ulative , exp lorato ry a nd an arc hic , the c lose link

estab lished be twe en a kind of m ate rialist onto log y a nd po litic al em anc ipa tion

has be c om e a rec urring trope in the c om me ntaries on loc ative me dia. To a

certain extent, the trend corresponds with a desire to transcend the limits of

postmodern theorization and the apparent elitism of net.art, however, a

range of competing motivations and influences have emerged in the diverse

fields that have converged around the topic of augmented reality. For

resea rc hers Anne Ga llow a y and M att Ward, new a rc hae ologica l tec hnique s

de velop ed in co njunct ion with pho tog rap hy, GPS a nd c artographic ma pp ing

c oincide through loc ative me d ia as soc ial platfo rms. This c orrelat ion is id entified

with the activation of static architectures in order to restore hope through thetransfo rmation of urba n land sc apes. (Diete r, 2007: 198)

The a c tivation and rewriting of the urba n land scap e b rought

about by the artistic practices associated with locative media must be

consid ered in co njunction with a tendenc y to deve lop a c inema tic a nd

interac tive a rchitec ture c ap ab le o f c rea ting a tota l imm ersion effect on

the digital set16. This urba n a lleg oriza tion is translated into stree t culture

and intervention, as is the case with the laser graffiti proposed by the

Graffiti Research Lab, L.A.S.E.R Tag (2007); narrative and playful

networked city in which space is mapped with messages recorded by

cyc lists who, alone, exp lore the c ity streets in sea rch of hid ea way

places where to leave their stories and listen to those of others, in Rider

16 Ma novic h, L. (2004). The p oe tics of a ug me nte d sp ac e. [Online]. Ava ila ble a t:

http:// ww w.ma novich.net/nn m%20ma p/ Augm ented _2004revised .doc (Ac c essed 25Sep te mber 2008).


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Spoke (2007) b y Blast Theory; approximations to the situac ionist drive17

as is the case with the singular traces superimposed onto the urban

c artog raphy as those p ut forwa rd by Hugh Pryor and Jeremy Wood (GPS

Drawing), and Ester Polak in Real Time (2002); conversion and activism in

the c ase of the Makrolabpro jec t (1997-2007) by Marko Peljhan, and the

Transborder Tool for Immigrants(2007) by artivist Ricardo Dominguez.

How ever, if the tendenc y to m od ify tec hnica l d evices, intervening

in their purpose and liberating them from private appropriation through

an allegorization18 that layers them with new meanings, intersects these

artistic proposals, there is nevertheless an ambiguity that traverses andsurpa sses them. In the words of Jordan Cranda ll:

What we are witnessing tod ay , how eve r, is not a o ne-wa y de loc a lizat ion or

deterritorialization, but rather a volatile combination of the diffused and the

positioned, or the placeless and the place-coded. Perhaps nowhere has this

be en mo re a pp arent than w ith mo bile G IS a nd loc ation-a wa re tec hnolog ies.

() Trac king ha s p laye d a p rima ry role in this shift. Its land sc a pes of inclination-

po sition fuel the g eo spa tial interfac es -- suc h as evide nc ed in Go og le M ap s an d

the C5 GPS me dia p layer -- which a re b ec om ing impo rta nt mo de s of a c c ess to

any phe nome non. (Crand all, 2006)19

17 Quot ing Sad ie Plant: One o f psyc hog eo grap hys princ iple m ea ns wa s the drive.

Long a fa vo rite p ra c tic e of the Da da ists, who orga nized a va riety of expe ditions, a nd

the surrealists, for whom the geographical form of automatism was an instructive

pleasure, the drive, the drift, was defined by the situationists as the technique of

loc om otion without a g oa l, in which one o r more p ersons during a c ertain pe riod d rop

their usual motives for movement and action, their relations, their work and leisure

activities, and let themselves be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the

enc ounte rs they find there . The driveacted as something of a model for the playfulc rea tion of a ll huma n relationships. (Pla nt, 1992: 58-59).18 We are referring here to the notion of allegory in the sense meant by Craig Owens

and derived from Walter Benjamins Ursp rung des deutsc hen traue rsp ie ls (1928).

Spe c ific a lly: Alleg oric a l imag ery is a pp ropria ted imag ery: the alleg orist d oe s not invent

ima ges but confisc a tes the m. He lays c laim to the c ulturally signific ant, p oses as its

interpreter. And in his hands the image becomes something other (allos= other +

agoreuei= to spe ak). He d oe s not restore a n orig inal mea ning tha t may ha ve b ee n lost

or obscured; allegory is not hermeneutics. Rather, he adds another meaning to the

ima ge . If he ad ds, how eve r, he d oe s so only to rep lac e: the a lleg oric al me an ing

supp la nts a n a ntec ed ent o ne; it is a supp lem ent. This is why a lleg ory is c ond em ned , but

it is a lso the sourc e of its the oretic a l sig nific anc e . (Ow en s, 1984: 205)19

Cra nd a ll, J. (2006). Prec ision + Guid ed + See ing. Virose. [Online]. Available at:http:// ww w.virose.pt/ vec tor/x_05/ c rand all.html (Ac c essed 7 Ma rc h 2009).


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In effect, if the aesthetical form of the drive has made a strong

com e b ac k in our contem po rary exp erienc e, be it unde r the g uise o f the

individual in transit, freed from geographical constrains and available for

new encounters through the always-on digital technologies, or through

the nomadic navigation on the World Wide Web, never before have

wanderings, routes and behaviors been this registered, stored and

controlled20, true to the deleuzian concept of dividual21 the current

cond ition o f the individual when red uced to a da ta subject (the result

of an endless sp lit b etw ee n a n individ ual s physic a l self a nd his/ hers da ta

representation)22

. We may thus say that today, more than ever, theimaginary maps, the ones that trace singular trajectories or create a

people to come, are drawn in relationship to (and in tension with) a

cartography of an overexposed territory, monitored by a gaze that

never c eases to c alculate a nd evaluate.

20 Quo ting Jorda n Crand all in Prec ision + G uided + See ing : While t rac king is a bo ut

the strateg ic d ete ntion a nd c od ific a tion of m ovement, it is also a bo ut po sitioning. It

studies how som ething m ove s in orde r to p red ic t its exac t loc at ion in time a nd sp ac e. Itfastens its object (and subjects) onto a classifying grid or database-driven identity

assessme nt, rea ffirming p rec ise c a teg oric a l loc a tion w ithin a land sc a pe of m ob ility.

Rathe r tha n be ing fully ab out m ob ility on the o ne ha nd , or loc at iona l spe c ific ity on the

other, tracking is more accurately about the dynamic between. We might call this

inclination-position. () This is a la nd sc a pe in wh ich signifiers ha ve bec ome sta tistic s. It is

how c om pute rs think, and how we be gin to think with the m. (Cran da ll, 2006).21 Quo ting G illes Deleuze in Post-sc riptu m sob re a s soc ied a de s de c ontrolo : Il ny a

pa s be soin de sc ienc e-fic tion p our c onc evo ir umn m c anisme de c ontrle qui donne

chaque instant la position dun element en milieu ouvert, animal dans la reserve,

hom me d an s une e nterprise (c ollier lec tronique ). Fliz Gua tta ri ima ginait une ville o

chacun pouvait quitter son appartement, sa rue, son quartier, grace sa carte

lec tronique (d ividuelle) qu i fa isa it leve r telle ou te lle ba rrire ; ma is aussi b ien la c a rtepouvait tre recrache tel jour, ou entre telles heures; ce qui compte nest pas la

ba rrire, ma is l ordinate ur qui rep re la p osition de c hac un, lic ite o u illic ite, et op re

une mod ulation universelle . (Deleuze,1990: 246).22 Ac c ord ing to Rob ert W. Willia ms in Politic s and self in the a ge o f digita l

re(p ro)duc ibility: For Deleuze, the da ta ga thered on us through the new tec hnologies

did not necessarily manifest our irreducible uniqueness. Rather, the very way that the

da ta c an b e g a thered ab out us an d the n used for an d a g ainst us ma rks us as d ividua ls.

For Deleuze, suc h tec hno log ies ind ic a te tha t we as d isc rete selves a re no t in-d ivisibles

entities; on the contrary, we can be divided and subdivided endlessly. What starts as

particular information about specific people or selves can be separated from us

and rec om bined in new wa ys outsid e ou r c ontrol. Suc h rec om binations are ba sed on

the criteria deemed salient by those with access to the information, be theygovernment o ffic ials o r c orpora te m a rkete rs. (Willia ms, 2005).


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Thus, as David Lyon notes on The End of Privacy (Lyon, 2007),

the c ontemp orary surveillance soc iety23 where location-aware

corporations such as Digital Angel and VeriChip 24 arise, along with the

om nipresenc e of c losed -circuit TV ne tworks (CCTV) in urban spac es and

the de velop ment o f a new p enolog y ba sed on the p red ic tion of risk and

on the identification and management of the categorized groups

according to different degrees of danger (Ericson, R. & Haggerty, K.,

1997)has been progressively replacing the criteria of public benefit

with that of risk minimization in what concerns the assessment of public

polic ies, a tend enc y which only ga ined strength sinc e the terrorist a tta ckon the World Trad e Center on Sep temb er 11th 2001. To question this new

condition, to confront the technical apparatus, to subvert and

experiment, to rise above its time, this is what we can and should expect

from contemp orary art.

In orde r to work, surveillanc e syste ms de pe nd on the ir sub jec ts (ind ee d , as

Fouc ault observed a long time a go , subjec ts be c ome the be arers of their ow n

surveillance 1979). Although there is a sense in which the subjects of

surveillance become objectified' as their data doubles become more real to

the surveillance system than the bodies and daily lives from which the data

have been drawn, their involvement with surveillance systems often remains

active, conscious and intentional. People comply (but not as dupes), negotiate

and a t times resist the surveillanc e syste ms in w hich the ir lives a re e nmeshe d .

(Lyo n, 2007: 55)

Faceless25 (2007), a film by Manu Luksch, is an excellent example

of this resistance to the contemporary apparatus of surveillance in that it

appropria tes c losed -circ uit TV networks, devia ting from their exp lic itpurpose and endowing them with an experimental, artistic and activist

d imension. Shot in Lond onthe c ity in the world with the highest density

23 On which it would be worthwhile reading the Rep ort o n t he Surve illanc e Soc iety

prep ared by the Surveilla nc e Stud ies Netwo rk:

http:// www .ic o.gov.uk/up loa d/ doc uments/ library/d ata _protection/ practica l_ap plic ati

on/ surveillanc e_soc iety_full_report_2006.pd f (Ac c essed 7 Ma rc h 2009)24 Suggesting t he use of t ec hno log ies like RFID a nd GPS for the p urp oses of mon itoring ,

ide ntifying a nd loc a ting p eo ple, animals and ob jec ts.25

Available at: http://www.ambienttv.net/pdf/facelessproject.pdf (Accessed 5 March2009).


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of CCTVsas part o f the Ma nifesto for CCTV Filmmakers26, Faceless is

entirely made from surveillance camera footage obtained by the artist

unde r the UK Data Protec tion Ac twhich g ives the individua l c ap tured by

the CC TVs the right to req uest a c op y of his/ hers footage. In Fac eless:

Cha sing the Data Shado w , Manu Luksc h a nd Mukul Pa tel, who

c ollaborated on the sc reenplay, sta te:

Fac elesstrea ts the C CTV ima ge as an e xa mp le o f a lega l rea d yma de (objet

trouv). The m ed ium, in the sense o f raw m ate ria ls tha t a re transforme d into

artwork, is not adequately described as simply video or even captured light.

More a c c urately, the me dium c om prises ima g es that e xist c ontinge nt on

particular social and legal circumstances essentially, images with a legal

sup erstruc ture. Facelessinterrog ates the law s tha t g ove rn the video surve illanc eof soc iety and the c od es of c om munic ation that a rtic ula te their op eration, and

in bo th its mo de o f com ing into be ing a nd its plot, de velop s a spe c ific c ritique.

(Luksc h & Pa te l, 2007: 74)

Just as in the project Video Sniffin , developed by the collective

Med iaShed 27, which includes the videos The Co mm ercial (2006), Min

Olen (2006), The Duellist (2007), and Spy Kitting (2006-2007), in Faceless

the city is transformed into a permanent film set and the a ct o f creation

becomes a gesture of appropriation and transformation of the

om nipresent g aze o f the surveillanc e c ameras. In this c ontext to c rea te is

to affectively populate a territory, to rescue it from the barrenness and

letha rgy in whic h the non-rec ip roc a ted ga ze of the surveilla nce camera s

had plunge d it.

Facelessis the result of not only a brilliant conceptual intuition but

a lso of a sub tle a rtistic work, ma nifest o n the visua l and the narrative waysin which Ma nu Luksc h a pprop ria tes the c irc les supe rimp osed on the fac es

of the recorded individuals, except for the artist herself, the only visible

face (an artifice legally imposed to owners of surveillance cameras, for

the sc reening of CCTV ca p tured ima ges, with the intent o f p rote c ting

the c itizens p rivacy).

26 Available at: http:/ / www .am bienttv.net/c ontent/?q=dpa ma nifesto (Accessed 5

Ma rc h 2009).27 Availab le a t: http:/ / ww w.mediashed.org/ ab out (Ac c essed 7 Ma rc h 2009).


16/22

Mic ropolitics : Exploring Ethico -Ae sthetics. Inflexions: A Journa l for Resea rch-Crea tion. No. 3. October


Still from the mo vie Fac eless(2007). Ima ge kind ly supp lied b y the a rtist.

In this Orwellian fa b le the fa bulous vo ice of Tilda Swinton na rra tes

the story of a strange city whose inhabitants have no face and live

immersed in an eternal present, the real time, dictated by the scrutiny of

the New Machine which has abolished the past and the future, and

along with them guilt and unrest, but also any possibility to experience

the real. Sudde nly, one w om an reg a ins her fac e a nd w ith it theconsciousness of herself and others, rediscovering the city and its areas

of affect and freedom, just like the ones populated by the spectral

children with their colorful and clandestine dances to the sound of

which the main character will regain, for brief moments, her memories,

reuniting onc e more with those w ho a re d ea r to her.

It is perhaps on the dance sequences (choreographed by Ballet

Boyz), which take place in several of Londons public spaces, that


17/22



Facelessbest expresses its strangeness and poetic activism, evoking the

contradictory forces that connect us to the spaces we so often cross

and forge t to inhabit.

Still from the mo vie Fac eless(2007). Ima ge kind ly supp lied b y the a rtist.

Monitored, assessed, controlled, divided and owned: such is the

complex condition of contemporary space which may nevertheless

become our territory if traversed by affects, bodies and gestures that

inhab it it a nd make it communa l. It is this possibility that, in d ifferent ways,

movies like Faceless, the photographs and cartographies of

Baumga rten, and t he map s of An Atlas of Rad ica l Cartog raphyaddress.

In their singularity and difference, these works of art offer evidence that

the creation of this emerging territory, this labor of geopoetics, cant

relinquish a relationship with tec hnology and the m ed ia . On the contra ry:

this is a politica l rela tionship and therefo re a n imperative one.


18/22


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Affective Territories by Margarida Carvalho

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