A12 – Research, installation project and artist book, CCA – Center for Contemporary Art, Kitakyushu, Japan, january 2002.

How to draw a map of Kitakyushu from scratch and which could be the tools and strategies to use? These two questions define the project aimed at drawing the map of an unknown territory, in that case Kitakyushu, trying to replicate the attitudes and techniques of ancient explorers.
Starting from that artificial condition of absence of information, getting lost and needing to find a way to orient movements across the city, perceived as a terra incognita, allow to render manifest predefined ideas, attitudes, tendencies, ways of seeing which are proper to the observer.
The first operation consists in the creation of an unnatural condition: to avoid using already existing maps of the city. A GPS device (Global Positioning System) has been used to register itineraries, tracks and relevant spots of several explorations realized during two months. Data from the GPS have then been inserted into a CAD drawing to obtain a representation of several drifts through the territory of Kitakyushu, almost as a palimpsest where to insert notes, sketches, objects found during the wandering, snapshots and filming. The use of an extremely accurate electronic device is developed in analogy with the tradition of the geographical explorations of the XIX century, when the use of scientific instruments allowed defining a structure for the registration of a subjective experience. The map rather than becoming the objective representation of a given territory, it is transformed into a travel diary, that reveals the processes of discovery and loss.
N 33°51.917′, E 130°47.808′ are latitude and longitude of the Center for Contemporary Art in Kitakyushu, Japan.