Sunday, May 6, 2007


Piribeck, whose recent work centers around an interplay between Art and GISci, was responsible for creating visualizations instrumental to the planning and implementation of the field drawing. Clorius designed the SUBONE graphic, which was scanned and imported into GIS software where it was layered over an aerial view of Portland provided by the Maine Office of Geographic Information Science. Coordinates taken in the field were used to size and geo-reference key points on the graphic. The point data was loaded into a GPS data logger so that the "go to" function could be used to establish the layout for the graphic. Because the data logger can be as much as 5-10 meters off, it was necessary to manually measure the field and estimage distances visually. The final drawing was thus a result of calculation and estimation, which is much the same process used in traditional landscape drawing where perspective systems based upon geometric grids are combined with free hand drawing based upon visual comparisons, math is balanced by intuitiion and eye/body coordination. The entire process although mediated through satellite technology (head in the sky) was in the end a very physical endeavor (feet on the ground).

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