Mapping the Database: Trajectories and Perspectives
Sharon Daniel and Karen O’Rourke
Mapping is intersubjective communica-tion—the visualization or representation of information. Theterm “map” applies both to a clear representation and to theact of analysis required to create such a representation. A mapfulfills the functions of both record and statement—it is a his-tory of the subject’s, or mapmaker’s, relation to that which ismapped and an act of communication with others who will in-terpret and use it. To map is to locate—but position is always“relative to . . .” Intersubjective communication occurs whenthe meaning of data or information is accessible to, or estab-lished for, two or more subjects. In intersubjective communi-cation, values and truths are inseparably intertwined.Interpretations and representations are produced dialogi-cally—in cooperation with a “text” or data set. None of theparticipants is assumed to be a subject presumed to know—i.e. anunquestionable authority—so objective knowledge is displacedby shared subjectivity. To accurately map social and culturalexperience requires infrastructures and interfaces that facili-tate intersubjective communication, favor dialogue over mono-logue and allow representations and interpretations to emergeand evolve—an infrastructure like the database.
A database is an organized collection of information. It pro-vides a framework for retrieving information, contributing newinformation, drawing conclusions and making decisions. Adatabase is a meta-structure, which maps out a multitude ofpotential trajectories for dialogic and emergent processes.
The database and the map are far more than simple toolsused to organize, elaborate or conserve knowledge; indeedthey are significant components of our perceptual world andof our perception. As generally understood, cartographic map-ping involves representing a three-dimensional, continuousspace in two dimensions—assigning fixed correspondencesbetween abstract symbols and experiential points of reference.In mathematics and genetics, mapping is a function such thatfor every element of one set there is a unique element of an-
other set. Therefore, the databasewould seem to be at odds with themap in that it allows users to re-arrange information in patternsthat no longer bear any relation toa particular origin or point of ref-erence. Using a database, one canregroup or reorganize data—for ex-ample, street names or towns fromdifferent geographical locations, inradically different ways. In an al-phabetical sorting, for instance, asmall town in Florida can appearnext to the Iraqi capital some 7,000miles distant. Geographical location thus becomes just one ofthe ways of ordering relevant information. Instead of merelyrepresenting the territory, the database-as-map becomes a ter-ritory to explore in and of itself—allowing us to gather andsearch greater amounts of information, to sort, visualize andscale it to fit particular needs, and to make new correlations.
Access to data and its potential significance for an individ-ual or community are both tied to sociocultural context. Map-ping, classifying and interpreting experiential data in thedigital realm may involve using interfaces and tools that aredeveloped from a particular sociopolitical perspective. Systemsof representation are culturally constructed. Both systems ofrepresentation and the interfaces we use to engage them canfunction as repressive and normative forces. However, digitalinformation and communication technologies do present anopportunity—a material context that we, as artists and re-searchers, exploit to challenge dominant perspectives and pro-vide alternative means of self-representation. Our research isboth critical and utopian. We attempt to re-imagine classifi-cation systems as emergent systems—where names, categoriesand associated data structures arise from the bottom upthrough collective usage. These systems explore the aestheticdimensions of the database [1]. In our respective projects wehave each employed mapping as a methodology and an in-teraction metaphor in the design of dynamic, evolving systemsthat allow participants to create and archive their own itiner-aries and maps on-line.
Our approach to building evolving databases differs frompurportedly user-driven systems such as the Google search en-gine’s relevancy ranking algorithm, which rates a web page ac-cording to the number of other pages that link to it. In thissystem a particular page’s rating is improved if the pages link-ing to it are themselves often linked to by others. Since view-ers rarely tend to view more than one or two pages of resultsfor a given search, this filter tends to empower the powerful,
The authors attempt to re-imagine classification systemsas emergent systems—wherenames, categories and associ-ated data structures arise fromthe bottom up through collectiveusage. Each has employedcartographic methodology as aninteraction metaphor in thedesign of dynamic, evolvingsystems that allow participantsto create and archive their ownitineraries and maps on-line.These systems explore theaesthetic dimensions of thedatabase. The authors havepresented and tested proto-types of two developing sys-tems, Subtract the Sky and AMap Larger Than the Territory,in a workshop/exhibition. Thisarticle provides a brief descrip-tion of the premise and imple-mentation of both projects. Itconcludes with some preliminaryfindings from the workshop/exhi-bition and the authors’ sharedresearch.
Sharon Daniel (artist, teacher), University of California, Santa Cruz, Department of Filmand Digital Media, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, U.S.A. E-mail:<[email protected]>.
Karen O’Rourke (artist, teacher), Université Paris 1, U.F.R. des Arts Plastiques et Sciencesde l’Art, 27, avenue Lombart, 92260 Fontenay-aux-Roses, France. E-mail:<[email protected]>.
Based on a paper presented at the Artmedia VIII Symposium, “From Aesthetics of Com-munication to Net Art,” 29 November–2 December 2002, Paris.
increasing the gap between those whopossess symbolic capital [2] on the Weband those who do not. As a secondary re-sult, its widespread use marginalizes andmakes it more difficult to find the off-beat, the idiosyncratic, the unfashionableor simply any newcomer without con-nections. Certainly, Google reflects thecollective behavior of its users but it si-multaneously homogenizes their net-work environment.
In contrast, our systems are being de-signed to promote heterogeneity and toaccelerate the proliferation of voices on-line—however offbeat or idiosyncratic.Subtract the Sky [3] and A Map Larger Thanthe Territory are open systems that en-courage and reflect difference, that mapthe particular within the collective be-havior of users by allowing individualsand communities to author their ownrepresentations and construct their ownsets of associative links. Both Subtract theSky and A Map Larger Than the Territoryare being developed by involving groupsand individuals through workshops andcommunity-oriented events and exhibi-tions. For example, in “Mapping theDatabase,” a workshop/exhibition thattook place in November 2002 at the Uni-versité Paris 1 [4], we presented andtested prototypes of these two develop-ing systems. In the text and figures thatfollow, we each provide a brief descrip-tion of the premise and implementationof our respective projects. We then con-clude with some preliminary findings
from the workshop/exhibition and ourshared research.
SUBTRACT THE SKY(SHARON DANIEL)Subtract the Sky takes its name from amethod used in astronomy. Astronomers
must eliminate the light of all the starsthey do not wish to see in order to cap-ture the light of a single star. Effectively,astronomers must define what “sky”means for every observation. In otherwords, there is no single meaning for“sky,” but many, given the perspective ofthe observer. To “subtract the sky” is tointerpret data from a subjective perspec-tive. Here, the phrase is used as a poeticmetaphor for the process of collecting,authoring and contributing data.
While political and economic powerare increasingly dependent upon accessto and presence within the global infor-mation culture, the voices of the cultur-ally, economically and technologicallydisenfranchised are becoming less andless audible. This dangerous trend mightbe reversed if communities of interestacross the socioeconomic spectrum hadaccess to information technologies andthe ability to map their own positions ininformation space. As an artist my goalsare: to avoid representation—not to at-tempt to speak for others but to allowthem to speak for themselves; to buildcollaborative networks that address thespecial problems of communities withlimited access to information technologyand culture; and to build collaborativetools for use by communities in their ownempowering, authoring practices. Sub-tract the Sky is a collaborative system [5].It provides an on-line environment forcollective and emergent methods of map-
ping individual and collective experi-ence. It is a tool for intersubjective com-munication and self-representation.
Subtract the Sky invites participants tobecome cartographers, enabled with thetools they need to produce an archive ofmaps that trace their own histories andre-map their own social and politicalworlds. Subtract the Sky participants maymap any subject from their own individ-ual perspectives or in collaboration withtheir community(ies) and thus challengedominant or normative representationsof the world. The definition of “map” inthis context is inclusive across a broadspectrum, from geographical maps em-ploying geographical information sys-tems (GIS) data and global positioningsystems (GPS) data to purely conceptualmaps. In other words, maps contributedto the database need not have any geo-graphical reference but may be repre-sentations of concepts, emotionaltrajectories, political strategies, biologi-cal processes, historical traces, etc., ad in-finitum. Subtract the Sky participants willmap their worlds by contributing andclassifying new data (images, texts and sounds), creating new categories and associations between data objects, and re-interpreting existing data using a real-time visualization of Subtract the Sky’sevolving database. This interface itselfprovides a map of the current state of thedatabase that dynamically expresseschanges made by participants collabo-rating across the network in real time.
Figures 1 and 2 show screenshots ofversion 1 of the database visualizationand search and edit tools tested during
the “Mapping the Database” workshopand in the “open territories” workspaceat DEAF ’03. Fig. 1. shows the return ofa search on the category “public” that dis-plays a multi-node map contributed by astudent of Karen O’Rourke at UniversitéParis 1, U.F.R. des Arts Plastiques et Sci-ences de l’Art. The node-system visuali-zation was originally based on the opensource project Touchgraph (http://touchgraph.com). The code from Touch-graph was altered and further developedfor Subtract the Sky by programmer JohnJacobs. The “edit” interface allows par-ticipants to create and update new nodes
in the database. The individual partici-pant’s “palette” is shown on the right.The palette displays the images a partic-ipant collects by searching Subtract theSky’s database or the Internet. Imagesadded to the palette are then made avail-able as source data in the prototypemulti-user map-making application.While this interface worked well for so-phisticated and advanced users, tests dur-ing workshop/exhibitions proved it wasnot sufficiently transparent or intuitivefor the target audience of less experi-enced users, so a more intuitive and sim-plified interface for version 2 is underdevelopment.
The new interface (Fig. 3) fills the par-ticipant’s screen, creating a completedesktop environment in which multiplewindows may be opened simultaneouslyto view Subtract the Sky’s database from avariety of perspectives, including: anoverview of contexts or categories thatconnect data objects; a view of imagethumbnails and details returned from akeyword or category search of Subtract theSky or the Internet (or both); a collectionof data objects contributed, mapped andlinked to the database by the individualparticipant (including weighted associa-tions and maps created by connectingnodes into clusters); and a view of thenetwork of participating contributorslinked by associations established be-tween the data objects they have con-tributed. The node cluster provides anintuitive, simple and consistent interfacefor un-initiated users. At every level of in-teraction a cluster of nodes, in whicheach node will open a new window when
selected, provides access to tools anddata. Simple forms for text input and slid-ers for navigation supplement this typeof interaction as necessary. Participantslearn through exploration that they cancreate their own node clusters to buildmaps and associations between nodes dy-namically by dragging the mouse fromone node to another. The main “menu”(Fig. 3), a graph or node-cluster, is usedto launch navigation tools (zoom, rotateand “sky” sliders used to customize thebackground and current view of the data-base) and the search tool. The searchtool allows the participant to select orcombine categories (contexts) and typein keywords (descriptions), then choosea source (Subtract the Sky or the Inter-net—Google—or both) and display the“map” returned in the current windowor in a new window. The map of searchreturns is a graph or node-cluster that dis-plays thumbnails of images or icons fortext and sound files in Subtract the Sky’sdatabase and the titles of web pages re-turned by Google.
Participants may view this map fromseveral different perspectives—throughthe filter of classification and categoriza-tion (Fig. 3); by genealogical associationbetween contributed images, texts andsounds; by tracing connections in a mapof the community of users or network ofcontributors (Fig. 4); or from their ownpersonal perspectives (Fig. 5) by creatinga map or visualization of associations be-tween nodes in the database for theirown use that is tied to their own partici-pant/contributor identity. Each node
can be selected to open a detail window(see Fig. 4) that contains an image textor sound along with the contributor’s in-formation and any keywords or descrip-tions added by the contributor, or, in thecase of an Internet search, a link to theweb page, which will open in a separatebrowser window when selected.
Participants may search the projectdatabase (or the Web) by category (con-texts) or keyword (descriptions). Theymay add selected images, texts andsounds found in their search results totheir personal view of the database (seeFig. 5), then build maps by creating linksbetween new data objects and/or con-necting them to existing objects, key-words or categories. The participant’spersonal view of the database and thecontribution sub-panel allow the partici-pant to add an image, text or sound filewith a description and label to her per-sonal view. In the window that displaysher personal view the participant canthen create a map by connecting her owndata objects to each other and assigningrelative “weights” to their various associ-ations. She may add her nodes and node-sets to the collective map of the databaseby connecting her nodes to existingnodes in the database (images, texts,sounds and/or contexts). A new node ornode set is added to the database whenthe contributor “drags and drops” a newconnector from a new node to a contextlabel or an existing node. The classifica-tion system, or list of possible “contexts,”consists of highly contested terms suchas nature, culture, aesthetics, public, private.
It is my hope that the maps contributedunder these categories and the keywordsused to describe them will begin to in-flect the meaning of the terms them-selves and create new associations forthem—relocating and re-mapping lan-guage, multi-vocally.
Mapping, which includes adding newdata to an evolving database and creat-ing new links and associations to existingdata, is thus always a collective and col-laborative act. Figure 4 shows a windowthat displays the contributor network.Node labels display the login identity ofeach participant in the network (anyonewho has created a login). Connectionsbetween nodes express the relations be-tween participants based on associationsbetween the data objects they have con-tributed. Each node links to a “detail”window that gives information about theparticipant (as defined by the partici-pant) and a list of contributions made bythat participant and provides a furtherlink to the “detail” window for each con-tributed data object. The contributor de-tail window also provides a link to asynchronous communication space fordirect communication and collaborationif such a connection is specified and ac-cepted by the contributor. Potential forsynchronous communication is meant toenhance remote collaboration betweenparticipants with shared interests and isintended to assist in building community.
A multi-user map-making environ-ment, SkyDraw, currently in develop-ment, will allow participants to authormaps (images, texts and sounds) collab-oratively over the network using sourcedata from the database and/or their owndata. The map-making environment,which includes image, text and sound ed-iting tools in a multi-user “white-board”environment with file-sharing and syn-chronous communication, will track par-ent/child relationships between eachnew map contributed to the database andthe data objects used to author it. Thisinformation will be uploaded with eachcontributed map, so its links and associ-ations may be automatically representedwhen a participant views the data fromthe perspective of the personal (the par-ticipant’s own “home” view—see Fig. 5),the contextual (overview of categories—see Figs 2 and 3) or the contributor net-work (a genealogy of participants asrelated through their contributions—seeFig. 4).
Subtract the Sky is a tool. It is designedto give voice to communities and indi-viduals on issues of relevance within theirown social worlds. When development iscomplete, it will be available globally for
users on-line but will also be employed inspecific local contexts as a tool for con-stituencies who do not generally have ac-cess to communications technologiesand whose voices are not heard in infor-mation space.
For example, Subtract the Sky will beused as a tool in the context of a projectI have initiated called Need_X_Change [6].Need_X_Change is a work of technology-assisted, community-based public art de-signed to help the staff and clients ofCasa Segura, an HIV prevention clinicand needle exchange program in Oak-land, CA, attain social and political voicethrough self-articulation, activism in theirlocal community and participation in theglobal information culture. Through this
work, needle exchange clients (a com-munity of homeless injection-drug users)become the source of self-narration andre-symbolization, and in so doing createthe conditions under which a claim todignity is possible.
Needle exchange programs are a con-troversial but proven method of reduc-ing needle-related HIV risk behaviorsamong injection-drug users. Needle ex-change programs are part of a thera-peutic strategy called “harm reduction.”Harm reduction is a type of practicalethics—a process of de-escalating moralconflicts and educating as required sothat each participant in a given circum-stance can effectively see the other’spoint of view. I share the philosophy be-
hind “harm reduction” therapy, which isbased on a recognition of the value anddignity of all individuals, their experi-ences and their perspectives.
Most of the potential Need_X_Changeparticipants have never used a computerand, although they say they have “heardabout” the Internet, have never been on-line before. They are subject to the forceof information culture without havingthe opportunity to engage with it—it is akind of glass ceiling, a pervasive ghost.Every instance of <http://www . . . /> ona sign, on the radio, on the television orin a set of instructions is a statement in aforeign language. Many of the clients ofCasa Segura live on the street, have noform of official identification becausethey have no fixed address and thus haveno access to basic civic and social services.Their absence in the virtual data-worldhas serious implications in the physicalworld. The complex struggle over civilliberties and social rights in electronicallymediated information space is materiallydifferent from the one on the street.Building a collaborative relationship inthis context requires developing social,institutional and technological infra-structure.
I begin by asking “What do you think—what is your experience” of individualswho are rarely, or never, asked. Each par-ticipant in the project tells her own storyin her own words, using her own images,texts and sounds. I work one on one withparticipants. In some cases I teach thembasic computer literacy and web pub-lishing. Several participants have pub-lished a number of web pages afterlearning to use a standard WYSIWYGhtml application and image editor. Thishas required considerable effort for theseparticipants given the extremity of theircircumstances. Many of Casa Segura’sclients are not able to make the sustainedcommitment to the regular meetings required to benefit from this type oftraining. Most live on the edge of des-peration—in need of housing and foodas well as methadone treatment and/orclean needles. Some are relatively stableand able commit to the training programbut not necessarily capable of learninghow to use complex commercial tools. Ihave successfully used existing tech-nologies—(for example, free web log interfaces provided by blogger.com<http://blogger.com> and some simpleform templates built on the ZOPE open-source content management system at<http://zope.org>) to keep active thoseparticipants who cannot follow throughwith training. But a special set of intuitiveand non-prescriptive tools is needed to
give this user community a voice in in-formation culture.
There are ethical issues to resolve. The political assumptions embedded in the design of digital tools reinforce theboundaries between the technologicallyand economically enfranchised and dis-enfranchised. I hate the idea of traininghomeless, mentally ill needle exchangeparticipants to use proprietary programslike Microsoft Word, in which the spell-checker resolutely insists on changing“underserved” to “undeserved.” This is anexample of the political subtext of the de-sign of commercial digital tools. For methe principal question is how to design interfaces that will facilitate productiveparticipation for inexperienced userswithout over-determining their contribu-tions. This problem is simultaneouslytechnical, aesthetic and political. I amconvinced that some sort of frame is nec-essary to identify a field of potential—anopen space allowing and provokingmeaningful responses from participants
who are so unaccustomed to having theirperspectives valued or even queried. Ihope that Subtract the Sky can provide thisframe. However, I am concerned that thetechnological interfaces and the powerrelations implicit in the social and insti-tutional context may combine to repressor prescribe, to enforce normative valuesand impose master narratives. (For ex-ample, participants are called “clients” byCasa Segura staff, which represents a par-ticular type of institutional relationship.Many of these “clients” have difficulty ac-cepting the possibility of collaborationand self-articulation and strive to give “ap-propriate” responses instead of direct orhonest ones. I see these individuals as“participating subjects” and try to getthem to see me as just another partici-pating subject.)
Subtract the Sky will provide a personalcartography or map-making environmentthat I hope will help participants focus ontheir own priorities and articulate theirown perspectives. Figures 2–6 show the
interface for version 2 of the project,which is being progressively re-designedand simplified toward this end. The pro-cess of participatory design began withthe workshop exhibition at UniversitéParis 1 (see Fig. 1) and continued during“Open Territories” at the Dutch Elec-tronic Arts Festival (DEAF ’03) in Rotter-dam [7], and will include Need_X_Changeparticipants who contribute their images,sound files and stories to the Subtract theSky database at the needle exchange tentsites (see Fig. 6) [8].
Worlds should not be mapped usingonly the data available in the culturalmainstream. Media representations mapa complex geopolitical terrain. Theserepresentations should not be acceptedas monolithic absolutes. The terrain mustbe examined, mapped and re-mappedfrom multiple perspectives. The field ofdata must be open to additions and re-configuration from every perspective,without hierarchical ordering or restric-tion. A map is always perspectival. It lo-cates but it is itself already located. Mapsare political instruments that should beauthored and employed by collectivesand grassroots networks, not controlledby governments and authorities. Grass-roots networks, nonprofit organizationsand disempowered, often technologicallydisenfranchised groups need a context,access to the field of data and tools for“imagery activism,” for developing col-lective and emergent methods of map-ping and visualizing data—this is thepremise underlying the development ofSubtract the Sky.
A MAP LARGER THANTHE TERRITORY(KAREN O’ROURKE)
“What a useful thing a pocket-map is!”I remarked.
“That’s another thing we’ve learned fromyour Nation,” said Mein Herr, “map-making. But we’ve carried it much fur-ther than you. What do you consider thelargest map that would be really use-ful?”
“About six inches to the mile.”
“Only six inches!” exclaimed Mein Herr.“We very soon got to six yards to the mile.Then we tried a hundred yards to themile. And then came the grandest idea ofall! We actually made a map of the coun-try, on the scale of a mile to the mile!”
“Have you used it much?” I enquired.
“It has never been spread out, yet,” saidMein Herr: “the farmers objected: they
said it would cover the whole country,and shut out the sunlight! So we now usethe country itself, as its own map, and Iassure you it does nearly as well.”
—Lewis Carroll [9]
Australian Aboriginals find their way inunfamiliar country without using navi-gational instruments or notions of as-tronomy. They construct cognitive mapsbased on myths, traditional songs and sto-ries that depict the physical features oftheir ancestors’ Dreamtime tracks, thepaths they made all across the continentas they shaped a world out of chaos. Forthem territory is not a piece of land en-closed within borders but “an inter-locking network of ‘lines’ or ‘waysthrough’”—the Songlines, sung intobeing by these ancestors. To survive inthe Outback, much of it arid scrub ordesert where rainfall is erratic at best, itis necessary to move continually to findwater and sustenance: to stay in the sameplace would be suicide [10]. Much of thisvery precise geographical knowledge, or“bush erudition,” comes from conversa-tions with other travelers who describe ingreat detail the trails, camps and sacredsites they have encountered along theway [11].
A far cry from either the Aboriginalnomadic wanderings or Western urbanexperiences such as Baudelaire’s flâneriesor Breton’s aimless ramblings, our owndaily itineraries would appear at first to berather well-beaten trails, limited in scope.Their very banality would seem automat-ically to exclude any discovery or chanceencounter. In the metro at rush hour, dowe not sometimes feel that we have seenthe same faces so often they have becomelandmarks? At least we are not on thewrong platform. . . . By asking partici-pants to recount their paths across the city,this project aims to build experientialmaps based on such notions as landmark,district, edge or boundary, path, ren-dezvous [12]. What details reveal a neigh-borhood, an intersection, a street? Whatcharacteristics of places or routes help usto find our way in a complex urban cen-ter? What information is charted on ourmental maps? What makes them specificto Paris, London or Tokyo?
Many of our waking moments are de-voted to getting from one place to an-other. Although we often feel this is timewasted, like negative space in a graphicdesign, it models the “positive” momentsin surprising ways. However mundane,each of our urban itineraries tells aunique story. Why this particular triptoday? How did we find our way? Which
path, which means of transportation didwe choose? What was the weather like?What did we see, hear and smell on theway? What remains afterwards?
Our itineraries reveal not only our personal choices or tastes but also cul-tural and political determinations. Thehundred-kilometer trip from Jenin to Hebron on the West Bank could take ei-ther 2 hours or 14, depending onwhether we are required to stop at eachof the 24 army checkpoints on the way[13]. To a greater or lesser degree, ourtravel vicissitudes point to larger issues,providing clues about living conditionsin a given time and place.
Guy Debord defined the dérive (liter-ally: “drifting”) as “a technique of rapidpassage through varied ambiances.Dérives involve playful-constructive be-havior and awareness of psychogeo-graphical effects, and are thus quitedifferent from the classic notions of jour-ney or stroll” [14]. Geography, accordingto Debord, accounts for:
the determinant action of general natu-ral forces, such as soil composition or cli-matic conditions, on the economicstructures of a society, and thus on thecorresponding conception that such asociety can have of the world. Psycho-geography could set for itself the study ofthe precise laws and specific effects of the
geographical environment, consciouslyorganized or not, on the emotions andbehavior of individuals [15].
Psychogeographers look out for thesubliminal messages in urban planning;they practice a sort of city-space cut-up[16].
A Map Larger Than the Territory devel-ops a Web application that will enableparticipants to represent their urban trav-els on-line, using images, texts andsounds (see Color Plate B No. 1). The re-sult will be a cross between a “Map of Ten-der” charted by surveillance technologyand a network of trade routes or “Song-lines” [17]. Both kinds of territory are de-fined by the crisscrossing paths of thosewho travel through them. Instead of trad-ing songs, participants exchange stories,impressions. Each trip can be analyzedor simply recounted. The 10-minute walkfrom school could be structured likeLévi-Strauss’s Tristes Tropiques; a shoppingexpedition to the Printemps departmentstore could mean advancing into the“Heart of Darkness” of the January WhiteSales.
The project involves:1. A Web-based method of notation
for participants to re-create and visualizetheir itineraries on-line, using both textand image files they have uploaded andinformation available from the databaseand on the Internet.
2. A searchable, modifiable on-linedatabase of participants’ urban itineraries.
3. A re-scalable, zoom-able map inter-face that allows one to search all the itin-eraries on file.
4. An on-line Rummage Sale for useditineraries, a networked marketplacewhere users can preview, download andexchange itineraries.
In its first version, the database con-tained textual descriptions culled fromresponses to an on-line questionnaire(see Fig. 7) and interpretations of these
texts by others (Fig. 8). The questionnaireitself was envisaged as a symbolic form, inperpetual re-negotiation as the questionsthemselves were modified in response tothe replies they attracted. This led to thedevelopment of several very differentquestionnaires based on archetypal question-and-answer situations, from par-lor games (the famous Proust question-naire) to administrative forms, eachbearing its own distinctive tone and style.Participants could choose from Fill in theBlanks, Interrogation, Follow the Dotted Line,Tell It Your Way and New York Body ‘n’ Soul.The questionnaires included both ex-tremes: multiple choice questions, whichlimit the number of answers the respon-dent can choose from, and open-endedquestions followed by an expandable textfield, which places no limits on answers.The first option is useful for making cor-relations, showing the different ways inwhich people’s paths intersect (both literally and figuratively) by matching re-sponses, while the second allows partici-pants to tell their stories in their ownwords in texts of variable length. To en-courage very specific multi-layered nar-ratives while also building data-objectsthat can be interconnected, I have triedto strike a balance between the two.
The new interface aims to render thevariety and complexity of the narrativespeople contribute, allowing readers to
draw meaningful parallels and make newcorrelations, while engaging them visuallyin the map-making process. The mappedrelationships will be semantic, topo-graphic rather than strictly geographic.After the participant has chosen a city anda language (French or English), the open-ing screen allows one to view selected itin-eraries in the database. Information abouteach itinerary is displayed when themouse rolls over the name. The only placenames on the map are the ones previoususers have given to the points on theirpaths. This screen will allow the viewer tosort itineraries by date, place, traveler, key-word, run searches and display results. Aclick on a previous participant’s itinerarywill open a window showing a written de-scription and/or a movie.
Another button sends the viewer to ablind map where she can add an itiner-ary of her own. To do so, she must firstgive it a name, a date and a color. She canuse the tools provided to locate it anddraw it on the map: zoom button, mapmover, place marker, etc. (Fig. 9). Eachtime she marks a location on the map, adialog box opens up for her to identifyit. At this point she can also follow one ofseveral links to add images, texts andsounds, either by uploading a file, selecting an object from the database,writing a text or responding to a ques-tionnaire. Once the text has been keyedin or the object uploaded, identified, an-notated and added to the database, shecan validate the place marker and go onto the next. When she has finished mark-ing up her path, she can view the movieshe has made. By default the images andtexts are assembled into a simple slideshow in the order in which they were en-tered. Several tools will be available toedit it, allowing her to modify the num-ber, order and rhythm of the frames, andthe soundtrack. To help people createtheir movies, I will be holding a series ofworkshops in which participants will de-sign audiovisual “path-building blocks”that can be reused by others. The blockscan be key-frames, “tableaux vivants” setup in the cityscape and very short videosequences inspired by urban travel experiences. Visitors online can also contribute their own images to the database.
The database intentionally confrontsdescriptions of very different itineraries(Fig. 10): adults driving to work and chil-dren running off to play, well-worn com-mutes and spontaneous joyrides, militaryparades and anti-war protest marches,quick jogs over to the corner drugstoreand slow traffic crossing town, early-morning dog-walks and late-night bar
hops, each capable of revealing a specificaspect of our urban imaginary (Articlefrontispiece and Fig. 11). The infinitesi-mal details of our subjective itineraries,which on their own might seem trivial oranecdotic, take on significance when wetake the time to describe them and con-front them with others, many others. Inconjunction with a great quantity ofother details, unique stories and ordinarytrips, they form a new entity, a dynamicwhole that is greater, more intelligentthan the sum of its parts.
The Map with its marketplace of itin-eraries and network of links holds up amirror to the city. The more a city favorsdiversity, the livelier it is. Versatile, multi-farious, abundant, it is a dynamic systemthat results largely from simple interac-tions between its inhabitants and their liv-
ing spaces [18]. Acting individually, in-teracting with others at a local level, theyproduce complex, collective behavior ata higher, global level. The Map, like thecity as a whole, forms an organized com-plex system made of “situations in whicha half-dozen or even several dozen quan-tities are all varying simultaneously insubtly interconnected ways” [19]. Ratherthan creating an object for contempla-tion, this project focuses on the inter-connections, the ways in which datanetworks “work.”
RECURSION—META-MAPPINGTHE DATABASERecursion is a way of specifying a processby means of itself. The process of map-ping may be indefinitely re-applied to the
results of its own application. A recursivemap is one that begins with one or moreinitial instances and then specifies a setof conditions and repeatable rules for de-riving others. Mapping the database is arecursive process.
The exhibition/workshop “Mappingthe Database,” at the Université Paris 1,was a beginning of a recursive process —an initial attempt to specify a set of con-ditions and tools for intersubjectivecommunication that might lead to de-riving others. Artists, computer pro-grammers and participants workedtogether in the gallery space. We beganby presenting the projects to invitedgroups and individual visitors. Thegallery/workshop space allowed them toconsult the artists and developers, ex-plore the web interfaces and contributeto the databases by preparing a map orresponding to a questionnaire. At thesame time, participants were able to giveus feedback throughout this process.This kind of preliminary user testing isessential to building a participatory proj-ect. Discussions with members of the ac-ademic community offered us someengaging cross-cultural perspectives: theparticipants were French and American,students and professors, artists and com-puter scientists. Presenting the two proj-ects in the same space also allowed us tomeasure their differences and begin toexamine cross-cultural perspectives onthe following issues:
1. The representation of spatial, tem-poral and cultural experience in non-hierarchical information systems.
2. The design and use of interactive in-terfaces to networked databases.
3. Participatory design processes in apublic environment.
4. The social implications of classifica-tion systems and information architec-tures in public information space.
As political and aesthetic trajectoriesand perspectives are increasingly mar-ginalized, suppressed and absorbed bythe commercialization of the Net, weconclude that, in order to maintain atruly public information space, collabo-rations between artists and communitiesmust be undertaken to build open sys-tems and interfaces that map alternativepoints of view and support the prolifera-tion of voices on-line.
Acknowledgments
Our shared research was supported by a grant fromthe France-Berkeley Fund. Development of Subtractthe Sky has been supported, in part, by the Langloisfoundation, the University of California, Santa Cruz,and the Banff Center for the Arts.
References and Notes
1. See essays by Sharon Daniel, “Collaborative Sys-tems,” and Karen O’Rourke, “Paris Réseau, Paris Net-work,” in AI and Society 14, No. 2, Special Issue onDatabase Aesthetics, pp. 196–222 (2000).
2. Pierre Bourdieu shows how “symbolic capital” (so-cially recognized legitimization in the form of pres-tige, honors) is readily convertible back intoeconomic capital. See his Esquisse d’une théorie de lapratique, précédé de trois études d’ethnologie kabyle(Geneva: Droz, 1972). When Google references a site,classifying it among the most relevant for a givensearch, it generates visits to that site that can be con-verted into revenue in the form of advertising or sales.
3. Subtract the Sky and SkyDraw—the multi-user map-making environment—are both open-source projects;see <http://sourceforge.net/projects/skydraw/>.
4. “Mapping the Database,” exhibition/workshop bySharon Daniel and Karen O’Rourke, salle MichelJourniac, Université Paris 1, Unité de Formation etde Recherche des Arts Plastiques et des Sciences deL’Art, Fontenay-aux-Roses, 25–28 November 2002.
5. This project is a collaboration with Mark Bartlett,assisted by John Jacobs, Olga Trusova, Adam Hiattand Victor Dods.
6. Need_X_Change is supported by the Creative WorkFund, a collaborative funding initiative of the Co-lumbia Foundation, Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr.Fund, Miriam and Peter Haas Fund, and Walter andElise Haas Fund for artists and organizations in SanFrancisco and Alameda counties.
7. DEAF, the Dutch Electronic Art Festival, is a bi-ennial international and interdisciplinary festival or-ganized by V2_ in Rotterdam, which showcasescrossovers between art, technology and society. Sub-tract the Sky was one of three DEAF ’03 “open terri-tories” workspaces. DEAF ’03 “open territories”workspaces were installed at Pakhuis Las Palmas(Arena) in Rotterdam, from Tuesday, 25 February–Saturday 1 March 2003.
8. Casa Segura operates three weekly needle ex-change events at remote locations in Oakland, Cali-fornia. The exchange staff and volunteers set uptents and tables at each site where they distributeclean syringes in exchange for used ones to regis-tered injection-drug users. Casa Segura also provideshot food, free clothing, acupuncture, homeopathy,HIV and hepatitis C screening, and medical treat-ment for wounds and abscesses at each weekly ex-change. I have become acquainted with projectparticipants by volunteering at the Fruitvale ex-change periodically since 2002. In the future a tentwill be allocated for project participation using a lap-top and remote wireless Net access.
9. Lewis Carroll, Sylvie and Bruno Concluded (London,1893). See also Borges’s description of a similar mapin “Of Exactitude in Science,” in Jorge Luis Borges,A Universal History of Infamy (London: Penguin Books,1975) p. 131. My title was inspired by Lev Manovich’suse of Borges’s image to describe “indexes and thedata they index. . . . But now the map has becomelarger than the territory. Sometimes, much larger.”See Lev Manovich, The Language of New Media (Cam-bridge, MA/London: MIT Press, 2001) p. 225.
10. Bruce Chatwin makes this point in The Songlines(London: Jonathan Cape Ltd., 1987, Vintage Clas-sics ed., Random House, 1998) p. 56.
11. This knowledge comes both from firsthand ex-perience and from hearsay. See David Turnbull,Maps Are Territories (Chicago, IL: University ofChicago Press, 1989, 1993) p. 52. Arthur Upfield’sfictional detective, the half-Aboriginal NapoleonBonaparte, uses what he calls “bush erudition” to re-solve crimes. See for example The Bone Is Pointed(New York: Scribner, 1947).
12. See Kevin Lynch’s groundbreaking study, TheImage of the City (Boston, MA: MIT Press, 1960), whichelucidates the concept of urban “imageability.”
13. Akiva Eldar, “Checkpoints in the Territories—and Jerusalem,” in Ha’aretz, 21 February 2002/Adar9, 5762.
14. Guy Debord, “Théorie de la dérive,” in Les Lèvresnues No. 9 (December 1956) and L’Internationale Sit-uationniste No. 2 (December 1958). English transla-tion by Ken Knabb: Situationist International Anthology,Edited and translated by Ken Knabb (Berkeley: Bu-reau of Public Secrets, 1981 [third printing 1995]).
15. Guy Debord, “Introduction to a Critique ofUrban Geography,” first published in Les Lèvres NuesNo. 6 (1955), Ken Knabb, trans. [14].
16. Wilfried Hou Je Bek, “Flaneur Culture,” <www.socialfiction.org/psychogeography>. In the 1950s De-bord and his friends developed specific techniquesfor objectifying their dérives, such as navigating in theHarz region of Germany using a map of London.Today members of the Dutch group Social Fictionhave developed algorithms derived from Conway’s“Game of Life” to determine their itineraries. As HouJe Bek writes, “Generative psychogeography, strollsfollowing a route generated by an algorithm, hasbeen developed to test the proposition that once youstart using the city in a different way you will find outthat there are a myriad of discoveries possible.”
17. See Madeleine de Scudéry’s 17th-century “Cartedu Tendre,” which appears in her 10-volume “romangalant” Clélie. Chatwin emphasizes the idea that Song-lines are also trade routes; Chatwin [9] p. 57.
18. Local authorities of course modify these behav-iors through urban planning and legislation (andsubliminal messages) but, as Jane Jacobs has shown,their efforts often do not produce the desired effects.See Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great AmericanCities (New York: Random House, 1961).
19. Warren Weaver, “Science and Complexity,” An-nual Report of the Rockefeller Foundation, 1958; quotedby Jacobs [18] p. 433.
Sharon Daniel is an assistant professor of filmand digital media at University of CaliforniaSanta Cruz, where she teaches classes in dig-ital media theory and practice. Her researchinvolves collaborations with local and on-linecommunities that exploit information andcommunications technologies as new sites for“public art.”
Karen O’Rourke’s work deals with intercul-tural communication, archiving and emergentstorytelling systems. At present she is prepar-ing a series of database projects entitled A MapLarger Than the Territory. She is a Maîtrede conférences in art and communication atthe Université de Paris 1.
