Experimental geography

"The manifestations of 'experimental geography' (a term coined by geographer Trevor Paglen in 2002) run the gamut of contemporary art practice today: sewn cloth cities that spill out of suitcases, bus tours through water treatment centers, performers climbing up the sides of buildings, and sound works capturing the buzz of electric waves on the power grid. In the hands of contemporary artists, the study of humanity's engagement with the earth's surface becomes a riddle best solved in experimental fashion. The exhibition presents a panoptic view of this new practice, through a wide range of mediums including sound and video installations, photography, sculpture, and experimental cartography. The approaches used by the artists featured in Experimental Geography range from the poetic to the empirical. The more pragmatic techniques include those used by the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) in projects made with students and other non-art groups that aim to strengthen peoples' roles as agents of change in their own environments. See, for example, their map intended to help longshoremen and truckers identify chokepoints in the cargo trade network. In their similarly empirical projects, the Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI), a research organization, examines the nature and extent of human interaction with the earth's surface. CLUI embraces a multidisciplinary approach that forces a reading of the American landscape (such as the disfiguring effects of culling natural resources from the picturesque banks of the Hudson River), thereby refamiliarizing viewers with the overlooked details of their everyday experience."--Publisher's description

"Francis Alÿs, AREA Chicago, the Center for Land Use Interpretation, the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP), e-Xplo, Ilana Halperin, kanarinka (Catherine d'Ignazio), Julie Meltzer and David Thorne, Lize Mogel, Multiplicity, Trevor Paglen, Raqs Media Collective, Ellen Rothenberg, Spurse, Deborah Stratman, Alex Villar, Daniel Tucker, Yin Xiuzhen."

Published in conjunction with an exhibition organized by iCI, Independent Curators International and held at Richard E. Peeler Art Center, DePauw University, Greencastle, Ind., Sept. 19-Dec. 12, 2008; Rochester Art Center, Rochester, Minn., Feb. 7-Apr. 18, 2009; the Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, N.M., June 28-Sept. 20, 2009; and at Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Me., Feb. 21-May 30, 2010.

In two directions: geography as art, art as geography / Nato Thompson -- Experimental geography: from cultural production to the production of space / Trevor Paglen -- Rich in reference: thoughts on land art's infrastructural legacy / Jeffrey Kastner -- Landscape is a metaphor / text by Matthew Coolidge ; artists : The Center for Land Use Interpretation, Francis Alÿs, Ilana Halperin, Raqs Media Collective, Julia Meltzer and David Thorne -- Research and development / text by Iain Kerr ; artists : Spurse, Multiplicity and Trevor Paglen -- We are the city / text by Damon Rich ; artists : CUP, kanarinka, Alex Villar, Deborah Stratman, e-Xplo, and Yin Xiuzhen -- Cartography / text by Lize Mogel ; artists : Lize Mogel, Ellen Rothenberg, AREA Chicago, and Daniel Tucker.