It is explicable, but I think they are still taking a side? Within Russia, Google is agreeing with Putin's claims on Crimea, regardless of whether that represents the views of people in Russia, or Crimea.
On cartography, yes, the artist, Simon Weckert, makes a point about that dilemma
"With maps it is possible to enforce truth claims of knowledge under specific conditions, which are closely interwoven with power."
I guess international law, the UN is supposed to be the arbiter of this , rather than Google and it's commercial interests in the countries in which it operates.
However, UN rulings are frequently overturned or ignored when run contravention to the opinions of the most powerful countries. Palestine / Israel, an obvious example.
Does anyone know how to see what this artist saw? How can I see what Russian's see when they use Google Maps? I'd love to know how Google Maps is representing Ukraine and Russia's current borders.
It can be a very intellectual pursuit, in which you have to re read every sentence three times to understand it . I enjoy that some of the time, but for me the wonder of psychogeography has been the experience and feeling of actually doing it. Playfulness - and something somewhere in between mindfulness and mindlessness. The first time I did it I took my kids to the bus station, they chose a letter and we got on the first bus that went from that stand, then tried to find some random way to determine when to get off - but the dog was sick so she made the choice for us, then we got off and wandered. These days I like to take a walk following coded sentences which I make up. The sentence determines the directions I take on the walk , so I can't plan, which pulls me into the moment.
Thanks for sharing this here chippy. I wrote this! Great to see all the interesting comments. Here is a bit more psychogeography, from Russia. There will be more coming
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30736147
