TerraLine · posted by vaibhav bhawsar May 23, 2008
TerraLine
The TerraLine instrument re-appropriates the magnetic compass to show directions that are not cardinal but indicators of economic states. It is an instrument that helps one navigate Earth using such directions.Navigating or orienting ourselves in such ways could offer opportunities of envisioning and exploring our world from different perspectives.
More information in slides below:
Watch in High Resolution.
Screen Visualization for TerraLine · posted by vaibhav bhawsar Apr 16, 2008
I created this to help me debug the two navigation techniques that I am using to get the set of countries that lay in a given direction. One is navigation by the rhumb line or compass heading and the other is using the great circle path as the trajectory.
When using rhumb line method the navigator sets a certain heading say 30 degrees and continues to head in that direction.
Whereas a great circle provides the shortest possible path between any two points but requires the navigator to constantly correct the heading. This makes navigating by great circle a lot more complicated than rhumb line method. Great circles are
Wikipedia entries on the two methods-
Rhumb Line
In navigation, a rhumb line (or loxodrome) is a line crossing all meridians at the same angle, i.e. a path of constant bearing. It is obviously easier to manually steer than the constantly changing heading of the shorter great circle route.
Great Circles
The great circle on the spherical surface is the path with the smallest curvature, and, hence, an arc (an orthodrome) is the shortest path between two points on the surface. The distance between any two points on a sphere is known as the great-circle distance. The great-circle route is the shortest path between two points on a sphere; however, if one were to travel along such a route, it would be difficult to manually steer as the heading would constantly be changing (except in the case of due north, south, or along the equator).
Thesis Timeline · posted by vaibhav bhawsar Feb 12, 2008
About the thesis · posted by vaibhav bhawsar Jan 30, 2008
Area of enquiry
Re-appropriating the magnetic compass to show directions that are not cardinal but indicators of emotional, economic states. Creating new kinds of directions that a device could help you point to and explore.
Why do we need such a device
Most navigation devices in the past (compass,sextant) opened a new territory which one could move towards, explore and discover. When the compass points north it points towards a direction and not ‘a location’ or point. But in contemporary navigation devices, such as the GPS ,an absolute co-ordinate system, like ones latitude and longitude on a imaginary grid is given utmost importance. The GPS is extremely efficient and in this efficiency we loose a lot of richness of contexts due to the absence of the act of exploration. When we use a GPS, often its about getting from point A to B. While when we use a compass its still about getting from A to B but the journey in between those points is also important.
In brief I am interested in pointing devices that are fuzzy, vague and tacit and not in devices that are exact, precise or ingrained in a grid of x and y coordinates.
Practices and Inspirations
The Compass itself
GPS Table – Fiona Raby and Anthony Dunne
Practices of the Situationists
the boomerang (yes the aboriginal one)
The Listening Post – Ben Rubin and Mark Hansen
Texts
Else/Where Mapping – Peter Hall and Janet Abrams
Field Guide to Getting Lost – Rebecca Solnit
Power of maps – Dennis Wood
Alison Sant – Redefining the basemap
Beyond Locative Media by Marc Tuters and Kazys Varnelis
Personal Project Reference · posted by vaibhav bhawsar Jan 30, 2008
The Lowlands Project
This investigation involved mapping my neighborhood communities, professions and individuals with the aim of eliciting hidden urban territories and behaviors. This was my undergrad thesis. For more see the link below.
Background Context · posted by vaibhav bhawsar Jan 30, 2008
Inspirations
Placebos as described by Anthony Dunne
The Placebo project is an experiment in taking conceptual design beyond the gallery into everyday life. We devised and made eight prototype objects to investigate peoples’ attitudes to and experiences of electromagnetic fields in the home, and placed them with volunteers. Made from MDF and usually one other specialist material, the objects are purposely diagrammatic and vaguely familiar. They are open-ended enough to prompt stories but not so open as to bewilder.
The GPS Table declares LOST on the tabel top when it loses GPS signals, rather when its LOST.
The compass needles on this table twitch when electronic products are placed on its surface. It makes us aware of this whole unseen world of electromagnetic fields (Hertzian Spaces) that our electronic devices impose on us.
BioMapping A project by Cristian Nold
Bio Mapping is a community mapping project in which over the last three years almost 1000 people have taken part in. In the context of regular, local workshops, participants are wired up with an innovative device which records the wearer’s Galvanic Skin Response (GSR), which is a simple indicator of the emotional arousal in conjunction with their geographical location. People re-eplore their local area by walking the neighbourhood with the device and on their return a map is created which visualises points of high and low arousal.