While the traditional practice of cartography is restricted to interpreting our physical and visible surroundings, electronic artists have long been exploring the notion of mapping alternate realities – physical and virtual, analog and digital. As an aesthetic medium, it provides direction and navigation beyond our immediate surroundings. Within the realm of the virtual, the possibilities for interpretation and classification are endless.

Eric Raymond's Scribe consists of miniature robots embedded with radio-wave receivers whose cartographic inscriptions are based on an interpretation of non-visual sources. Information is derived from cellular phones, television broadcast signals, solar storm waves and other local natural emissions. The result is a complex and detailed "map" superimposing multiple levels of imperceptible, electronic realities that occur simultaneously at any given time in any given space.

Scribe raises questions about the origin of images and visual/mental depictions. It is a poetic illustration of new landscapes transformed by technology and Raymond's ongoing investigation into the interdependency between images, ideas and objects.

Raymond has been active in the field of electronic arts for over ten years. He has exhibited his work on the national and international scene, notably at the Absolut L.A. International Biennial Art Invitational (Los Angeles), Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria), L.A.Freewave (Los Angeles), Artcore Gallery (Toronto) and Dazibao (Montreal). Raymond lives and works in Montreal. For more information on his work, visit his website.

Raymond would like to acknowledge the support of Jerred Costanzo, Michelle Kasprzak and Sacha Viltofsky. Scribe is funded by le programme d'aide financiere a la recherche et a la creation (PAFARC). Raymond is represented by Artcore Gallery in Toronto.

Scribe is presented in association with the 8th Annual Subtle Technologies Festival, May 27 – 29, 2005.