Yolande Harris / Taking Soundings: kristina's short notes

some notes from descriptions of installations:
a gps receiver is fixed in space yet the signal keeps changing. reading a satellite is a mobile situation. you are inferring your position from a moving object. the stationary gps device thinks it is moving and it infers the direction it is supposedly moving in. it is traveling through an imaginary space of position error.

using a gps is believing you know where you are and getting lost. this data is changing our relation to the landscape. it gives us a sense of false security. how do we understand where we are? you, as a person, is mobile and the gps data infers that static objects like buildings are also mobile.

what does the word mobile actually mean? is the entire system actually floating?

the history of astronomy is the beginning of navigation: positions is derived through the the comparing of spinning motions. satellites spinning in orbit are part of this navigational system and through gps reflects back on us its data and inaccuracies.

coastal navigation: the sextant and the chronometer allows you to work out where you are. you can determine your height above and below equator. the light house declaring its identity through different flashing sequences.

images of tracing along the coast of brittany. the moving tract of a boat on anchor. the anchor point is somewhere in the center of the trace. google earth taking pictures as events passed. the pull of the wind on a windy day. all this data is translated into sound. the sea disrupts your sense of balance...

asking the strawberry seller for directions.