Locative Media & The City

I have lived in a few cities so far including Seoul in Korea, Brisbane in Australia, Buffalo and Brooklyn in U.S. Every time I move to a new place I wander around the city with a map or without a map. This kind of wandering is letting go of my physical body and following my emotional reactions. Every chance and decision will be made by an emotional state.

I map the place by the peak of the moment, neighborhood, landmark building, aesthetic environment, current of people, context and sound. The act of mapping is very environmental and dependents on the city and at the same time it is separated from the environment and independent of the city.

I am a small individual wandering in an urban city and I keep exiting, entering and blending boundaries. Usually, when I do this I have some psychological burden. So I release mental stress through this walking experience like a sport. The random chance of walking returns to the floating mind.

Only sense and direction exist. This behavioral disorientation is becoming an entertainment through narrowness, broadness, busyness, crowdedness, and emptiness for several hours. The city and being lost in the city helps to create a personal map of the space and the senses.

I’m mapping the place and am embodying the place by way of my direction. The human mind appears as a substantial complex by way of my body as a tool. Here is another thing. The reason why I can wander in an urban area is that there is a transportation system. If I wander in the middle of forest or country side I can't find where I'm at. The city infrastructure is a guide.

An existing route where I have to go is always there. Transportation systems are one of the ways certain routes are virtually psychogeorgaphycally planned and constructed. I remember the station name and street name and find a dot on a route system like a network. The connection between each dot is the exit and entering point of another layer of the virtual map. Accordingly, I create a different plane of mapping through transportation.

This aimless wandering and derive empty the mind through observation of environment and the experience of finding a place.