Vaughan Wozniak O’Connor
’Geospatial Atlas’
13 February – 20 March, 2020
Vaughan Wozniak-O’Connor, GPS data from habitual walking routes affected by heart r- rate data, etching on metal, 2020. Photography Zan Wimberley.
ARTIST STATEMENT
“Geospatial Atlas” explores the creative potential of using tracking technologies as a drawing tool. Presented as a fragmented atlas of biometric data and embodied glitches, this exhibition attempts to map the emotional qualities of places as filtered through disorienting new technologies.
Vaughan Wozniak-O’Connor, “Geospatial Atlas”, 2020, installation view. Photography Zan Wimberley.
Drawing with GPS is not new; watch the digital line bend on any location-based app as you run. These works consider what inputs could alter line quality. Consider traditional gestural drawing— line quality changes according to the internal whims of the draftsperson. If we consider GPS as a pencil, perhaps a Fitbit could insert gesture into a virtual drawing.
In this configuration, changes in your bodily state (heartbeat, sweat, movement) distort the pin-point accuracy of the GPS route. However both GPS and biometric data is already affected. Data comes to us distorted by it’s interaction with architecture, the atmosphere, movement and sweat. These forms of seemingly quantitative data are plagued by error.
Vaughan Wozniak-O’Connor, MXQM+M6, Laser-etching on found acrylic, 60 x 90 each, 2017-2020. Photography Zan Wimberley.
Computational software adds to this murk by sorting and interpreting data into visual forms (data visualisation).
Rather than offering a gestural approach to GPS drawing, “Geospatial Atlas” suggests interference as a productive form. Layers of interference become Faktura (фактура); marks that speak as to how an object was made. Geospatial Atlas then is a confluence of traces, with objects bearing the marks of the algorithmic, material, geospatial and bodily as the distinct shaping forces of the present.
Vaughan Wozniak-O’Connor, NAVSTAR, Site-specific GPS error data, markers, bracing plywood, drawing robot, 2020. Photography Zan Wimberley.
Vaughan Wozniak-O’Connor, NAVSTAR, Site-specific GPS error data, markers, bracing plywood, drawing robot, 2020. Photography Zan Wimberley.
BIOGRAPHY
Vaughan Wozniak- O’Connor is an artist, researcher and digital holographer based in Sydney. In particular, his work has explored artist-led approaches to terrain visualisation and cartography.
Recent research has explored the technical and theoretical convergence of terrain and biometric mapping technologies, particularly within tactical digital holograms. Vaughan has exhibited extensively locally at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Carriageworks, C3 Contemporary, Firstdraft Gallery and Casula Powerhouse. International exhibitions and residencies include Holocenter (USA), BKZ Studios (Germany) and Museu da Cidade de Aveiro (Portugal).