'Big Brother really is watching you!': Literature in mobile dataspace

Starting point for this article is William Gibson's image of locative art in his two books Spook Country (2007) and Zero History (2010). Gibson creates a very clear and comprehensive picture of the term 'locative art'. The article compares this purely fictional image with the appearance of locative art and poetry in reality. It reviews projects like 'Objects of Desire' (2008) by Ludic Society, 'AndOrDada' (2008) and 'Sniff_jazzbox' (2008) by AND-OR and the very constricting project 'Constraint City. The Pain of Everyday Life' (2008) by Gordan Savicic. The project 'Before the Satellite Detects You' (2010) by AND-OR works with similar premises and makes the player aware of being constantly tracked: He has to hide in house entrances, under bridges, roofs and in the signal-shade of bigger buildings on his path through town. These projects show the dangers of an electronic data space that offers possibilities to amass personal data and set up a tight control via satellite- and other networks.