A place is both real and imagined,
but also symbolic. Global positioning System (GPS) devices tell
us where we are on the surface of the earth in terms of latitude,
longitude and altitude but they cannot tell us about a cultural
sense of place. Hamilton and Southern worked with local people to
make a new map of Lancaster and Morecambe, UK, based on the lives
of the people living and working there, and of the places. The walkers
were invited to make journeys that in some way represent who they
are in conjunction with being a landmark for the city they live
in (e.g. A participant in Morecambe took us for a walk along the
seafront, as for him the seafront represented Morecambe, and it
was a route he regularly took when walking his dog). Thirty four
walks were recorded using a GPS device, and were represented together
in the gallery on two map like screens folded into the space.
Behind the scenes you see the chaotic trails of 34 walks begin
to make a co-herent geography, the busy centre of Lancaster, the
sprawling sinuous wave of the seafront in Morecambe. Although the
back of the screens are expressing a lived and personal experience
they are also the most 'map like'. The fronts of the screens, whilst
more abstract are also more evocative of an experience of place.
The sweeps of matchsticks appearing to flock, to group like isobars,
to flow like tides.