Close Up at a Distance: Mapping, Technology and Politics by Laura Kurgan

Abstract

Laura Kurgan’s Close Up at a Distance examines the politics of digital spatial technologies, including Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Global Positioning Systems (GPS), and remote sensing—many with roots in American military and national security agency programs but now freely available as civilian tools. Kurgan, whose intellectual biography spans both the theory and practice of architecture and design, is particularly interested in questions about the relationship between reality and representation, especially the tensions between precision and ambiguity, raised by these technological tools. Her analysis proceeds on two fronts.