Cartographic Abstraction in Contemporary Art: Seeing with Maps

189 Pages·2018·5.42 MB·English

by  Claire Reddleman

Cartographic abstraction
in contemporary art
In this book, Claire Reddleman introduces her theoretical innovation “cartographic
abstraction”—a material modality of thought and experience that is produced through
cartographic techniques of depiction. Reddleman closely engages with selected art-
works (by contemporary artists such as Joyce Kozloff, Layla Curtis, and Bill Fontana)
and theories in each chapter. Reconfiguring the Foucauldian underpinning of critical
cartography towards a materialist theory of abstraction, cartographic viewpoints are
theorised as concrete abstractions. This research is positioned at the intersection of art
theory, critical cartography and materialist philosophy.
Claire Reddleman received her PhD in cultural studies from Goldsmiths, University
of London.
“Cartographic visions and the Apollo’s eye organized, ordered, quantified, and defined
the spaces of the modern world. How do we make sense of a contemporary world
in which surveillance cameras, drones, and satellites are no longer strange but are
our everyday reality? Claire Reddleman’s inspired book brings together critical carto-
graphic studies with the work of artists whose creations depend on maps, drones, and
related tools. This, the resulting book, generates theoretical tools for grappling with
uncertain times.”
—James Housefield, University of California, Davis
Cover image: Joyce Kozloff, Targets (2000), interior view (detail).
Image credit: The artist & DC Moore Gallery, NY.
Routledge Advances in Art and Visual Studies
For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com
W.J.T. Mitchell’s Image Theory
Living Pictures
Edited by Krešimir Purgar
The Politics of Contemporary Art Biennials
Spectacles of Critique, Theory and Art
Panos Kompatsiaris
Contemporary Visual Culture and the Sublime
Edited by Temenuga Trifonova
Art, Animals, and Experience
Relationships to Canines and the Natural World
Elizabeth Sutton
What Drawing and Painting Really Mean
The Phenomenology of Image and Gesture
Paul Crowther
The Concept of the Animal and Modern Theories of Art
Roni Grén
The Aesthetics of Scientific Data Representation
More than Pretty Pictures
Edited by Lotte Philipsen and Rikke Schmidt Kjærgaard
Art : Process : Change
Inside a Socially Situated Practice
Loraine Leeson
Visualizing War
Emotions, Technologies, Communities
Edited by Anders Engberg-Pedersen and Kathrin Maurer
Cartographic abstraction in contemporary art
seeing with maps
Claire Reddleman
Cartographic abstraction
in contemporary art
seeing with maps
Claire Reddleman
First published 2018
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 Taylor & Francis
The right of Claire Reddleman to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
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trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent
to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-71257-7
ISBN: 978-1-315-20006-4
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
List of Figures vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: From Critical Cartography to Cartographic
Abstraction: Rethinking the Production of Cartographic
Viewing Through Contemporary Artworks 1
1 Reconfiguring the View From Nowhere: Collage and
Complicity in Targets by Joyce Kozloff 21
2 The Drone’s Eye View: Networked Vision and Visibility in
Works by James Bridle and Trevor Paglen 53
3 Remote Viewing, Cartographic Abstraction and the Antipodes:
Three Works by Layla Curtis 89
4 Signification in the Soundscape: Bill Fontana’s River Sounding 119
5 Cartographic Abstraction: A Material Modality of Thought
and Experience 145
References 169
Index 175

Figures
1.1 Targets on display at the Venice Arsenale, exterior view 24
1.2 Targets (2000), interior view 25
1.3 Targets, interior view with door 26
1.4 Screenview of Google Maps, ‘Mata Khan’, June 2017 29
1.5 Satellite view of Google Maps, ‘Mata Khan’, April 2015 29
1.6 Route between Mata Khan and Soltani, screenview, July 2014 30
1.7 Route between Mata Khan and Soltani, screenview, January 2016 31
1.8 Screenview of Google Maps, ‘Bay of Pigs’ 32
2.1 Website view of part of the Dronestagram project 54
2.2 Installation view of Drone Shadow 003, Brighton, UK (2013) 55
2.3 Installation view of Drone Shadow 004, Washington D.C., USA (2013) 56
2.4 Installation view of Drone Shadow 002, Istanbul, Turkey (2012) 56
2.5 Website view of Drone Shadow 005 (2013) 59
2.6 Documentation of Code Names of the Surveillance State (2014) 61
2.7 Untitled (Reaper Drone) (2010) 62
2.8 Untitled (Reaper Drone) (2010) 63
2.9 Untitled (Reaper Drone) (2010) 64
3.1 First image in website presentation of 78 Degrees North, 67 Degrees
South, laylacurtis.com 93
3.2 Second image in website presentation of 78 Degrees North, 67
Degrees South, laylacurtis.com 93
3.3 Third image in website presentation of 78 Degrees North, 67
Degrees South, laylacurtis.com 93
3.4 Doubled map projection, antipodes.uk.com 95
3.5 Gallery view of gridded pairs of photographs 95
3.6 Gallery view of Antipodes 96
3.7 Gallery view of Antipodes 96
3.8 Detail of paired images, Volcan Tungurahua, Ecuador—Gunung
Sinabung, Indonesia 98
3.9 Ebstorf Map, maker(s) unknown, c.1239–1300. 357cm diameter.
Made at Ebstorf Convent in what is now Germany 108
3.10 Online view of Puerto de Tapia de Casariego, Spain, and Port of
Christchurch, New Zealand 110
4.1 Handout map—‘The River Sounding Journey’—side 1 121
4.2 Handout map, side 2 121
4.3 Map of recording locations in River Sounding exhibition catalogue 122
viii Figures
4.4 View from mezzanine level of part of the system of speakers,
Somerset House light wells 123
4.5 Photograph of coal hole 3, showing video projection of cables on
Millennium Bridge onto brick wall and pipe 123
4.6 Photograph of video projection on stone slabs 124
4.7 View into coal hole, with projection of turbines at Kew Bridge
Steam Museum 124
4.8 View into the Dead House, towards video projection of
Tower Bridge 125
4.9 Photograph of coal hole video projection (marked ‘5’ on handout
map) showing Thames Estuary whistle buoy 126
4.10 Promotional poster for River Sounding 130
Acknowledgments
My thanks go first and foremost to those who supervised me over the course of
this project as a PhD at Goldsmiths, University of London: Alberto Toscano, Susan
Schuppli and John Hutnyk. At Goldsmiths, I also thank Mary Claire Halvorson, John
Levett, Anisha Ahmed, Ian Tucknott, Simon Barber, Philipp Jeandree and Aya Hino.
I would like to thank those who have taken part in various reading groups with me,
who have challenged and supported me, and shaped my thinking, as well as those who
have taught me in various capacities during my time at Goldsmiths.
My thanks go to the artists, designers and galleries who have kindly given me per-
mission to reproduce their images, and all other persons whose labour has made my
work possible.
Particular thanks go to Joel Winder, Sophie Fuggle, Lucy Bond, Chris Jude, Ben
Mackay, Henry Lane, Angela Smith, John Canfield, Leen Van Broeck, Emma Leach,
and, above all, Edward Mackay.