Sound cartographies. In search of the sublime

Abstract

The telematic prosthesis increasingly reshapes our sense of the self and its relation to its surroundings. Today’s tracking technologies (GPS, geotag- ging) enable mobile, dynamic and more individual mapping that shortens the gaps between the panopticism, universalism and abstraction of clas- sical maps and the real physical experience. Artistic practices employing navigation techniques explore the potential of individual everyday move- ment to generate and perform new sensory modes of existence and meta-level narratives that can often be referred to as “sublime.” Applied to digital practices, this term describes decentering, dislocation, and disrup- tion of conventional contexting cues, challenging the reliability of ordinary senses for locating one’s subjective and objective “self,” enhancing the feel- ing of potentia. The sound overlay creates additional interruption of natu- ral expectations, the liminal in-between space within the created mobile soundscape. The paper demonstrates the diversity of artistic strategies in which mediation through geotagged sound constitutes transgression into augmented virtual space.