Benera and Estefan
Conflict Line, 2018                                                              
Installation (cut-out metal, prints on paper), variable dimensions

The wall-based installation Conflict Lines (2018) reflects on cartography as an inevitable distortion of reality. It asks a simple question: how do we read the ground? In lieu of the official cartography, it postulates a “counter-cartography” which describes the appearance of terrain as well as the mechanisms of its division, its effects, and causes.

Technically, it charts Google's arbitration of disputed land borders via Google Earth and Google Maps. The two platforms represent boundary claims differently depending on the domain location of online users: either presenting boundaries as a dotted line (in places where the boundary is contested) or else as a clear demarcation of national territory. The work includes sculptural elements that represent these contested boundaries, interposed with photographs drawn from Google's Street View feature that correspond with these locations.
The work reveals an unmapped world, by exposing the hidden conflict zones.


                 

             https://www.wired.com/2010/11/

                                                                                                                                       

                                                                                                                                        https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2010/nov/15