Contingent Cartographies, Fluid Identities, breaking a visual spell

Contingent-Cartographies

Google Street View has slowly grown through the years towards its ambitious goal to become the “Eye of God” available on any connected screen. The pure illusion to see (and so for our primary senses to be) everywhere, accessing any public space has been programmatically expanded. But the more we use these simulations, jumping into unknown urban space, the more gloriously we miss the local physical context. In her “Contingent Cartographies, Fluid Identities” artwork Alice Dalgalarrondo fights back against this glossy fake nomadism, providing context to shake the average “keyboard travellers.” She focuses on the desperate Cracolândia district in São Paulo populated by Crack cocaine dealers and addicts. The razor sharp visual analysis of Cracolândia’s Google representation, is made through a voice in between the synthetic and the natural, breaking the crisp visual spell and giving back to reality what it deserves.