Shadows From Another Place

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2004
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Shadows from Another Place is a series of “transposed maps” using Global Positioning System coordinates, maps, city sites and the web to translate and represent the impact of political or cultural traumas – such as wars or shifts in borders and territorial boundaries – that take place in one location, upon another. Collapsing distinctions between “foreign” or “domestic,” these hybrid spaces erase the safety of geographic distance and portray the impact of political, social and cultural change in local terms/on local ground.

San Francisco <-> Baghdad, the first in the series, maps the missile and bombs sites in Baghdad, Iraq from the first U.S. invasion in March, 2003, upon San Francisco, California, a city nicknamed by some of its residents, “Baghdad by the Bay.” Each mirrored site of impact in San Francisco is documented with photographs, maps and GPS coordinates, the same technology used by the miltary to target original sites in Baghdad.

(Source: Project description on Artist's Website)

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Transposed map of Iraq and San Francisco, showing bombed areas across the American landscape.
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Scott Rettberg