Temporal Lines begins with a table and chair in the material world. An audience of one sits at the table, where there is a collection of domestic objects, a metal knob and a VR headset for them to wear. Once wearing the headset they find the identical table and objects represented in the headset. The metal knob (in the material world) can be turned in either direction. As it turns the representation is transformed. The effect on the representation by the looping of the knob is mediated by algorithm pulling the transformation on a spiralling arc, circling without arriving at the same place.
Design
In this essay, I argue that the database, as a technology and a cultural object, can provide productive common ground for artists and designers to contribute to a broader dialogue around spatial and temporal representations in maps and mapping. This dialogue is important because, in general, the world-making act of cartographic representation lacks a temporal dimension.