Am I My Sister’s Cartographer? is an interactive installation that explores what it means to be a maker when you do not have complete control over the composition.

My sister is a sea captain. Whenever she heads out to sea she brings a GPS device with her. In addition to sending distress signals, this device can send out “okay” signals. At least once a day my sister would activate this device, sending her coordinates, date, and time to my email address letting me know she was alright. I saved them all.

Employing the tenets of cartography, this three-dimensional interactive environment explores the relationship of a brother and sister who spend stretches of time communicating exclusively through GPS data.

This work is intended to ask the question, Who is the artist? I made all of the aesthetic choices regarding the environment but it was my sister who decided when to send me her coordinates. The time and location of each pair of coordinates sent is dictated by wind patterns, weather conditions, charters, owners, and any number of other situational factors that are beyond her control.

Am I My Sister’s Cartographer? is created using the 3D game development tool Unity3D.

I began to aggregate all of her coordinates into a google maps document for her as a way of documenting her voyages. It was through this process that I had the inspiration for Am I My Sister’s Cartographer? I wondered what would happen if I used her GPS coordinates as the basis for creating a composition in a three-dimensional interactive environment. I wanted to explore how I, as a maker, could create a work of art without complete control of the composition.

View Amy GPS in a larger map