Carpenter-InAbsentia

__General notes__: -The structure is reminiscent of "Voyage into the Unknown" map based hypertext. The links are to real places, use of Google-maps is tricky. It gives freedom, but maybe too much? It it useless freedom since the icons are only in one central location?

-The map is real and Google-maps is really in the background, she doesn't just use a satellite image. We can leave the piece and go into Google-maps and leave the icons. Why? Because her point is that the neighborhood is changing so that her image and icon might not fit the actual map anymore. Who has control over the environment? There are political issues and issues are raised over who gets to shape lives and the neighborhood. The piece has problems of reliability/readability for some. It appeared that there are elements of documentary but it is really more Goggle-map fiction.

-Structure of each "narrator" is arbitrary. Seem like they were taken from the personal ads, if she doesn't say they were fictional narrations we might not know. There is a gentrification of the "hipsters" and old woman. Had a specific audience in mind for her work. She can present sympathetic cases for anger by presenting fictional things.

-__Real facts__: City always in construction 9 months out of the year. There are streets and highways that you must go around, true to the real city. Some people prefer to speak in French, and their French is more localized than French spoken in France. As far as the links that are in French -she makes a line of "our community" and you are an outsider, but invited in. She still makes you realize that you are not part of the community. Some of her links take you to other pages and it represents some of the other art in the community.

-Taking the map to a different level by adding icons and links on top of the maps. It would be impossible for her to stay true to her neighborhood and community and have it //not// be bilingual. The language is so much of a part of the cultural identity that she would be alienated if she //did not// use French. When you realize where she is creating the text then the language makes sense.

__Specific Questions/Issues on/with the piece__: The author's use of language- does it restrict us, invite us? Is she writing this for a certain group? Do our choices as readers also restrict ourselves? What is the function of the symbols? The symbols at the bottom don't do anything. The background images serve as a frame. Why the palm tree? There is an old style black and white satellite photo; a superimposed photo scene. What the city was and is becoming seems to be important. Is she simply charting the transformations? What are her ways of mapping her neighborhood? The old maps/satellite seems quite different from the images that Goggle gives. The present always has a future, the maps on the side are fixed. The site may change, but this text is not fixed, the live feed may change it. Some of it may be significant, but we would have to be a historian to know this, but we can feel the ever moving and shifting maps. She is giving up authorial control by letting this(Google-maps) be a part of the piece. This piece is not the normal way that we think about artwork. Some of the maps seem superimposed on the old image of the same place.