DATA CLOUD

Data Cloud is a public sculpture that asks where we are in relation to where technology thinks we are. The work forms a kind of digital disturbance in the real world by creating a visual glitch.

Originally, the location had just two decrepit benches. A GPS receiver was placed on both to record their position every ten seconds for the duration of one minute. The successive locations of the benches were mapped on a 3d chart of where the internationally adopted GPS infrastructure said they were. Twelve new identical park benches were then assembled at 1:1 scale according to where the GPS positioned them, over, underneath, and nearby the two original benches.

GPS is very precise but not very accurate. The inaccuracy of Data Cloud is an insight into the capabilities of current satellite positioning technology. It refers to the philosophical problems of truth and interpretation within the systems that we use to locate ourselves in relation to something else.

More details - gpsdrawing.com/projects/datacloud.html

Beatrixpark, Amsterdam, 2008

The sculpture was exhibited in Beatrixpark, Amsterdam, beside Platform 21 studios in 2008 & 2009.

Data Cloud was commissioned by Tom Jaspers in 2008 for the Checking Reality exhibition at Platform 21.