Device #2: A Wearable Map of the Region is the second in a series of three wearable devices for performance in Second Life. These devices are intended to give myself and/or my representation a heightened/augmented sense of place.
This devices title alludes to Alfred Korzybski's statement that "the map is not the territory". The metaphor, that subject and representation are not one and the same, forms a key role in philosophical discussions around what has been termed as the Map-Territory Relation. The work itself attempts to visualise a description of a map so perfect in detail that it incorporates itself and so to infinity. This has been employed by Lewis Carroll, Josiah Royce, Jorge Luis Borges etc. to explore ideas of the 'real', representation and the issues these pose in relation to each other.
Similar to device #1, this device is a visual prop for myself as viewer of my representation from a non first-person point of view. My representation wears the device which displays a live aerial map, scale 1:10, of its position within Second Life. The map rotates and moves as my representation moves showing a view of the immediate surroundings. This gives a different point of view and forms a continuation of a space that is itself already a representation. This map however even scaled 1:1 can never be a perfect representation of the original representation. Separated in time, due to periodic (one to three days) server caching, from the original representation the map can only incorporate itself if the wearer remains motionless during this time.
All footage and imagery shot at HUMlab Island, Second Life.
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