SonaR
A Map of Orange Cell Phone Activity in Paris

https://vimeo.com/157655906

Year Completed: 2016
Location: Paris
Media: Video
Authors: Catherine Ramus, Cezary Ziemlich, Pascal Taillard, Marc Brice, Orange Labs

Information+ Exhibition June
16–17, 2016, at Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

The SonaR project visualizes the Orange cell phone activity in Paris in three different days: a normal day, “Je suis Charlie” Rally Day, and New Year’s Eve. Each point on the map represents for a cell tower. The brightness of that point shows the level of activity of that cell tower. The data is collected from Orange, a mobile phone operator in France.

On January 11, 2015, “Je suis Charlie” Rally Day, 3.7 million people gathered on Place de la Repbulique and marched towards Place de la Nation in tribute to those killed by terrorists. We can easily find photos, videos and news reports of this rally. However, the video of SonaR project recorded this event from a different angle. We can see from the video that before 8:30, only very few people used their cell phone. Then the cell phone activity gradually increased in the morning but is still evenly distributed, which is not surprising because that day is Sunday. People start gathering at Place de la Repbulique from noon. At 3 pm, cell phone activity reaches the climax. After that, the brightest part moved towards Place de la Nation and disappeared gradually at 7 pm.

This video only uses the data of Orange cell phone users, so the activity of other mobile phone companies is not shown. The parks, river bank and railway areas are not shown on the map. The accuracy of the map is also limited by the location of the cell towers. The brightness of any point on the screen doesn’t reflect the level of cell phone activity on that point. The map is only accurate if you look at the overall trend, not specific points.

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I wonder what these icons mean!

http://www.soundsurvey.org.uk/index.php/london_unseen/pitcairn/

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LEE JANG SUB   ComplexCity   Year Completed: 2008

 “This project is an exploration to find a concealed aesthetic by using the pattern formed by the roads of the city which have been growing and evolving randomly through time, thus composing the complex configuration we experience today. I perceive the city’s patterns as living creatures that I recompose to form an urban image.”

— Lee Jang Sub  http://www.leejangsub.com/

The geographical information provided by this map is not important. It is the author’s action: selection, neglection, and elimination that transformed his personal imagination to comprehensible graphics that gives the map new significance.

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• Its geographic representation is quite accurate. The artistry of this map is breathtaking. The vivid colors, the artwork around the border, the fanciful creatures scattered over land and sea, all add to the sense that this was as much a work of art as a map.
• The continent of Africa portrayed on the map is actually a close illustration of the scale and shape of the continent.
• The map reflects European exploration bias.

Think about it: How much can we trust the information of the map when we know like most cartographers of the time, he was not an explorer himself and he drew his maps from the accounts of explorers, traders, and travellers?

http://chnm.gmu.edu/worldhistorysources/unpacking/mapsanalysis.html#

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A sketch in mapping the singular, based on Richard McGuire’s Here (2014), applied to The Lido.

Read a small stub article by CTV here about the $50mil worth of antique Canadian bills found at the site.

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Ac Ko Mok Ki – Peter Fidler

Stz’uminus – oral story map

http://www.firstvoices.com/en/Hlgaagilda-Xaayda-Kil/stories
(the exact story I presented is not located on this website as it was obtained first hand and the file is not able to be posted – alternatively other Haida – Hlg̱aagilda X̱aayda Kil – stories are provided above)

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?ll=48.99545253486705%2C-123.7910270736084&spn=0.120051%2C0.207195&dg=feature&msa=0&mid=1E_H17pirVICYyT2wMpojCU8O0H8&z=13

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“Colonizers produce knowledge of a territory within a specific framework that allows them to understand and ‘know’ place on their own terms. The ‘imaginary geography’ justifies possession over space by privileging the colonizer’s representations of territory.”
– Matthew Dyce

“Modernity constructs it’s other as a way of  privileging itself”
– Edward Said

“Indigenous place names are not simply geographic identifiers; they are houses for layers of information, including cultural and historical knowledge, environmental conditions, availability of resources, and Aboriginal identity”
– Müller-Wille, 1989; Thorton, 1997; Cruikshank, 1990

Sam McFaul

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