Paper for Journal of Media Theory

DOVEY, Jon; SPEAKMAN, Duncan. Anthropocene Elegy and GeoSpatial Presence. Media Theory, [S.l.], v. 2, n. 1, p. 32-56, july 2018. ISSN 2557-826X. Available at: http://journalcontent.mediatheoryjournal.org/index.php/mt/article/view/35

Abstract

Drawing from our collaboration on an AHRC funded research project, this essay will look at the production and reception of an artwork and offer an account of the tension in the work between the “authored” time line, the user’s temporal experience and the impact of mediated time on that experience. The artwork itself utilises a combination of pre-recorded audio, geo-locative technology and printed material to create an urban walking experience. The route is not pre-determined, but is created uniquely each time by a participating audience member in response to thematic and reflective provocations. Locations they are invited to choose while walking become part of their internal memory map of the city, while the GPS co-ordinates are stored by a mobile device. In the second half of the experience, the walker retraces their steps, layering their own experiential memory within media triggered by the stored locations. The audio and written material in the piece was collected from regions around the world at risk of disappearing. These include emptying Latvian villages, the sinking wetlands of Louisiana and the rising edge of the Tunisian Sahara. A particular affect of critical awareness of planetary presence is produced as an event at the interface of the