Ontological Surveillance Maps

Ontological Surveillance Map 072803, 2003
Ink, acrylic and latex paints on 2 wood panels
20" x 20" (50.8cm x 50.8cm) each; 20" x 40" (50.8cm x 101.6cm) overall

 

Like the Ontological Road Maps the Surveillance Maps begin with the order and structure of a New World city grid and gradually "build" outward into the convoluted confusion of the urban sprawl of twenty-first century cities in the United States. The Surveillance Maps consist of two panels. One panel an Ontological Road Map (ink on paper) and the other panel is a painting (gouache on paper) of a projected digital detail photograph of the road map. These two panels are then juxtaposed, resulting in the completed diptych. These pieces are an alteration of a  traditional cartographic convention of an “inset”, which is “a small graphic representation (such as a map or picture) set within a larger one.” However, an inset is also “a place where something flows in.”

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