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> Subject: Re: locative? tracked!
>
> i don't want to spoil the party, but i have always understood
> the term 'locative' as pointing in both directions, the
> potential for enriching the experience of shared physical
> spaces (as described by Marc in his mail), but also fostering
> the the possibility to 'locate', i.e. track down anyone
> wearing such a device. this does turn the 'locative media'
> movement into something of an avantgarde of the 'society of
> control'. i believe that people are aware of the ambivalence,
> but i am wondering at which
> level this critical aspect is brought into an arts project.
> (as the marginalised 'yes, but'?)

Well, up to a point. There are many ways to be located, there are many uses
for data.
A basic GPS unit uses the background GPS satellite data to establish its own
whereabouts. Thus, while a GPS unit can be part of a  more complex
communicating unit, in its essense it is like taking a reading on a star.
The information given is local to the user. Thus, a GPS device in itself
gives the user something valuable without giving anything away. The GPS acts
as a calculator (of location etc) and as a recorder (of same). I assume it
will not be long before
Of course, artists (and businesses) will quickly come up with reasons why
this local data should not remain local, i.e. that it should be shared and
distributed in a two way stream, for whatever purpose. And in our networked
world, we will not consider this to be a strange request.
You can today combine variously gps, bluetooth, gprs, gsm, wi-fi, internet,
to engage with the flow of locative data. It is the specific uses/outcomes
of such combinations that buys us into the 'society of control'. Artists are
of course fully aware of this, and much art in this space currently will act
as a warning or alert system for such potentiality. Any user of a locative
system, assuming they bother to inform themselves, should know where their
data is flowing and to what use it may be put.
In the UK the telcos have started selling access to locative data construed
from local gsm cells. This is much more invidious data, as it is in no way
within the users choice to be located in such a way.

Cheers,
Ivan