Mariela Yeregui: Inordinate topographies

Description

"...In that Empire, the Art of Cartography attained such Perfection that the map of a single Province occupied the entirety of a City, and the map of the Empire, the entirety of a Province. In time, those Unsconscionable Maps no longer satisfied, and the Cartographers Guilds struck a Map of the Empire whose size was that of the Empire, and which coincided point for point with it. The following Generations, who were not so fond of the Study of Cartography as their Forebears had been, saw that that vast Map was Useless, and not without some Pitilessness was it, that they delivered it up to the Inclemencies of Sun and Winters. In the Deserts of the West, still today, Tattered Ruins of that Map, inhabited by Animals and Beggars; in all the Land there is no other Relic of the Disciplines of Geography." (Jorge Luis Borges, The Maker)

Inordinate Topographies is a website project that aims to construct an unreal cartographical representation of spaces, created and imagined by users.

Borges' text as a pivot. A map at real scale altering, in fact, the sense of cartography. A map that is the object of the arbitrariness of natural forces.

At the beginning, Inordinate topographies is an empty interface (an interface without content). A mere engine and a series of resources available to any user.

A white surface and a bunch of tools that will enable users to construct a world cooperatively and progressively. Cartography of an ideal space.

At the same time, this map will be a permanent "work in progress". A map
without limits of time. But also, a map that intends to transgress any spatial frontier (this map may be expanded to any sides of the screen).

Each geographical location created by users is, at the same time, a space that may be navigated in a crosswise direction. Inordinate topographies is a website that will integrate programming scripts to make interaction in real time possible, as well as streaming technology, video sequences, images, texts, etc..

Similar to Borges' text, Inordinate topographies propose the construction of a non-real map, which aims to trace - as predicted in The Aleph- a space that may contain all the spaces simultaneously.

Project by MECAD\Media Centre of Art & Desing of ESDI
Barcelona, Spain

Interview with Mariela Yeregui

Biographical info:

Mariela Yeregui (Argentina, 1966)

She graduated in Arts from the University of Buenos Aires and the Film School of the National Institute of Cinematography.
She spent seven years in the Ivory Coast where she got a Masters Degree in Literature (University of the Ivory Coast). Her thesis deals with the relationship between oral communication and modern African literature. She is currently enrolled in the Doctorate in Literature.
She got an Antorchas Foundation's (Argentina) grant to work a year in the Hypermedia Studio - Department of Film and TV (UCLA), where she designed various projects for interactive installations and Net Art.
She went in residency to the Banff Centre for the Arts, where she produced a number of works related to digital and telematic arts.
Her net art work Epithelia was exhibited and awarded in many festivals around the world.
During the year 2001 she mainly worked in interactive and video installations. She was awarded at The National Prize for Visual Arts for the interactive installation Principle of Uncertainty.
Her reflection and artwork is focused on the construction of the identity and the construction of systems of dialogue and interaction.
She is interested in sensing environments and how individuals construct identities in such contexts.
She teaches at the School of Electronic Arts (University of Tres de Febrero), School of Audiovision (University of Lanús), School of Multimedia Communication (Maimónides University), School of Public Relations (Argentinean University of Enterprises).

Mariela Yeregui Personal Homepage