::fibreculture:: Sydney all a-blur

[Jim Barrett]

I also picked up on the
cloudy-images-of-the-Sydney-Opera-House-on-Google-Earth-prior-to-the-APEC-summit
story
(http://soulsphincter.blogspot.com/2007/08/google-censoring-sydney-images-again.html).
It is interesting when one thinks about it in terms of the nature of
information and censorship. A map is a powerful media for making the
world, I happen to be reading Lefebvre last night:

"The state and each of its constituent institutions call for spaces - but
spaces which they can then organize according to their specific
requirements; so there is no sense in which space can be treated solely as
an a priori condition of these institutions and the state which presides
over them." "The Production of Space" p85

Google has a dilemma as it is dealing so often with the spaces of which
society/ies are 'made' with all their political and power exchanges.
Google creates and provides access to information spaces or it refuses to
do so, depending on the geo-political location of the seeker. Under normal
conditions the image of the Sydney Opera House is an iconic construction
promoted by the Australian Tourist Commission. But in light of the APEC
summit it seems that Google has had to downgrade their claims to the Opera
House Image. Their image has become more symbolic for the duration of
APEC. The physical area around the Opera House is also being barricaded
off for the duration of the APEC meeting. The space has become a sort of
Holy of Holies where only the authorized have even direct visual access.

I recently returned from a journey to Australia and brought with me a map
depicting the hundreds of Aboriginal language groups which existed prior
to colonization
(http://www.univ-lr.fr/international/australie.recherche/page28aactuel/carteabo/carteaustralie.jpg).
Showing this map to a colleague who is a linguist he was amazed, saying
what a different picture it gave of "Australia". Indeed as we create media
we construct images of what spaces are. Taking away images removes our
(and presumably potential ‘terrorists’) ability to claim and use these
spaces for unauthorized purposes.

/jim B.


> i know everybody's more interested in talking about social networking
> platforms and Second Life these days... but are there any good
> old-fashioned Paranoids left out there?
>
> this (below) raises some big questions about freedom of information,
> the corporate-state info-nexus, etc. would love to hear from some
> enraged Google-bashers (if you exist?)...
>
> dt
>
>
> (from SMH online)
> http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/08/13/1186857396182.html
>
> Much of Sydney's CBD as it appears in the satellite images on Google
> Maps Australia has been fuzzed out, just weeks before the APEC summit.
>
> Google says the imagery was downgraded as a result of a "commercial
> issue" with a supplier, but the move has aroused speculation it was
> done at the request of police in order to minimise the risk of a
> terrorist attack during the September summit, where Sydney will play
> host to 21 world leaders including U.S. President George W. Bush....
>
>
>
> --
> Dr David Teh
> Independent Curator/Writer/Teacher
> Bangkok, Thailand
> m. +66 (0)84 673 7178
> e. david.teh at arts.usyd.edu.au
> w. bangkokok.typepad.com/platform | www.halfdozen.org
>
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-- 
PhD Candidate, Umeå University
Department of Modern Languages/HUMlab
+46 (0)90 786 658
HUMlab.Umeå University.SE-901 87.Umeå.Sweden
Blog: http://www.soulsphincter.blogspot.com
HUMlab: http://www.humlab.umu.se/