Where Google Maps Doesn't Match
Installation, 2019
Materials: Foamboard, Video camera, TV monitor, Architectural model trees, Remote control
With the help of visual technology, such as Google Maps, human beings are able to breakthrough our limitation of time and space to gain desirable knowledge. Sometimes the knowledge is meant to be inaccessible due to the power dynamics between authorities. Where Google Maps Doesn't Match is a project reflecting the incorrect data of China landscape shown on Google Maps. The data, shown in the maps, has been calculated and shifted, which does not actually present the existing landscape. Where Google Maps Doesn't Match takes the flattened Google imagery of the central government of China and embodies that imagery in a three-dimensional relationship between sculpture, camera, and monitor for the viewers. Through the sculpture, only the high walls are seen, rather than the whole view of the routes. When watching from the video camera and the live stream, the viewers can explore the top-down viewing of the scene. A remote is also provided for people to interact with the piece. With this piece, the artist is exploring the idea of the viewers surveilling, the act of the viewers being monitored, and the knowledge might not be true while confronting political issues.