Close Up at a Distance: Mapping, Technology, and Politics

"In terms of the overall implications of Kurgan’s work there is a sense in which, to paraphrase Marshall McLuhan, the method is the message."—Environments and Planning D: Society and Space

"Situated between art, architecture, and geography, Kurgan illustrates that actual research through practice can be as radically critical as it is projective."—Constructs

“Here is an extraordinary book: a beautifully designed and politically consequential geography of power. Vision from space goes far deeper here than merely one of contemplating the earth from above. In Close Up at a Distance, Laura Kurgan brings us forms of sight that range from the environmental eye to the optics of mass murder in Balkans; from postwar urban planning in Kuwait to the internal migration of inner-city residents to out-of-city prisons. If you want to see what politics through design can be, read this.”— Peter Galison, Joseph Pellegrino University Professor, Harvard University

“Close Up at a Distance is an urgent call for an ethico-political project adequate to our age of global imaging technologies. Because new kinds of satellite representations determine how we know the world, we must free ourselves from authoritarian — purportedly objective — interpretations of these images and, understanding how they are produced and used, assume responsibility for critical interpretations and uses. Artfully, Kurgan shows us how. Her nine mapping projects use satellite technologies to create alternative images or to divert existing ones from their official, commercial, and military functions. This book brilliantly theorizes and demonstrates the democratic importance of technological literacy.” — Rosalyn Deutsche, author of Hiroshima after Iraq: Three Studies in Art and War

“Close Up at a Distance is both a contemporary history of the use of geographic images for advocacy and analysis, and a sophisticated critique of the aesthetic, technical, and political decisions that underlie them. Kurgan is rightly known for maps that help us see social issues in a new light, but this book establishes her as one of the key thinkers about images, influence, and power.” — Ethan Zuckerman, Director, Center for Civic Media, MIT

“When it comes to drones and satellites, technological innovation has outpaced our ability to consider its implications. Expertly and thoughtfully, Kurgan works to close that gap.”— Dan Gettinger, Study for the Center of the Drone