INCH, Rhetorical Line, Mine

Pettican, Anneké and Roberts, Spencer (2006) INCH, Rhetorical Line, Mine. UNSPECIFIED. (Submitted)

Abstract

The process of graffiti based 'tagging' results in a curious interplay between landscape and text. The tag is a highly personalised form of territorial marker. As such it is a form of writing that is less concerned with narrative structure - and has a closer affinity with the symbolic. The tag is a shrouded form of symbolism with a referent that remains hidden.
The INCH project will be a form of re-enactment. The INCH tag will be captured in a number of its physical settings to be stored and replayed in a virtual space.

'Rhetorical Line' will be 'mapped' onto a landscape using GPS devices and performative writing. The project will build on our earlier cut-up narrative graffiti work (TheTrespass of Her Gesture, ISEA, 2002) to produce an ever-evolving text. In this case the text will be inscribed temporally onto the contours of an existing landscape. It will then be rendered digitally. The resulting palimpsest will construct itself over time whilst rotating in three dimensions.
The landscape will be drawn entirely from traces recorded during the performance and these will be gathered using GPS devices. The writing will give definition to the landscape and will ultimately serve to construct/critique the space.

'Mine' explores the ownership and contention of space, which surrounds the practice of tagging.
What does it mean to virtually tag a cityscape? Using stylized forms of the words MINE, YOURS, OURS and WHOSE, we hope to discover.

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