The Story of a Day Silvia Traistaru

The Story of a Day

I have an e-mail address registered with Gmail and thus I have access to all applications provided by Google. Google Maps Timeline (GMT) keeps a record of all my journeys, locations, time spent walking, but also journeys undertaken with other means of transport (car, bus, underground, train, plane etc.), registering my position and the places I’ve been to in my Google account, even if I am not using Google Maps, or my location is turned off. GMT allows me to modify or delete all entries from my location history. The timeline is private, only I having access to all the journeys and places I’ve been over the years.

In 2019, for a period of two months, I used the maps from GMT to make a set of works based on my travelling in Germany and Vienna, later on was extended to ordinary days in Bucharest. I made those drawings as a form of protest because Google had recorded in their application so much data about my trips. I was vexed by the fact that I was felling monitored, but I resolved to use the information Google had stored regarding all the places I’ve been to. Subsequently I discovered I could deactivate this service, but I decided to keep using it due to its utility as a mnemonic trigger.