STUDY 7/0: Error-Generated Spatiotemporal Visualization

Study 7/0 project visualizes the positioning errors generated by a static GPS receiver. Motivated by the idea of cognitive mapping as an individual, non-linear and discontinuous spatiotemporal experience, the project explores error and imperfections as generators of interesting conceptual, and narrative source material for further creative processing and expression unlike typical glitch art where the error is an aestheticised frontline layer. Study 7/0 is a concise study of the effective approaches to emergence in generative art in which the simple initial settings of a system can produce complex and surprising phenomena. In this context, it is spatiotemporal configurations and relations.

Placing a Garmin GPSmap 60Cx receiver on my desk, I turned it on with a draw track function, and kept it there powered on for 7 days, 7 hours, 16 minutes and 11 seconds (from 7 July 2010 04:46:36PM to 15 July 00:02:47AM). While the ideal GPS plot for an immovable object is a single point, this setup had recorded 8438 trackpoints on a path 34.7km long, covering an area of 2.1km2 with average speed of 0.2km/h and maximum speed of 17.9km/h. The path is a consequence of the limited precision of a commercial GPS receiver working inside a building under changing weather conditions, combined with the general GPS inaccuracy. With time-stamps, horizontal positions, altitudes and speeds for all trackpoints, the path constitutes a large dataset.