GOOGLE MAP GLOBES
People have been mapping to make sense of their world since the beginning of time. It offers a perspective for understanding that can be based on subjective experiences. Any map we create will reflect distortions that reveal our prejudices, status, and assumptions. In the Renaissance period, the globe represented world dominance. This was in the context of the competing conquest of European nations to colonize the planet. The globe became a status symbol that represented everything a kingdom owned or felt entitled to. The depiction on the globe could be the earth or the heavens. Both were something royalty felt like they owned and both were distorted to reflect the dominance of the imposing owners.
Each globe represents a period of time and movement captured through data collected by my Google Maps. The information is revealed by using ultraviolet light. Our data is available to be viewed if you know how to access it. With the right tools and knowledge, anyone can access our private information. While on the surface there may seem like there is nothing there, the reality is that there is information hiding in plain sight. By cloaking the information with ultraviolet reactive pigment the representation of this aspect which is common in the digital world is brought to a physical level.
Acrylic globes using invisible ultraviolet pigment depicting Google Maps Data.
