Paula Levine’s Baghdad San Francisco imagines the effects upon San Francisco, had the bombs which fell on Baghdad been destined rather for the American city. The project references GPS technology, physical spaces, associated histories and the Web.

A mapping of the first US attack on Baghdad, in March 2003, is superimposed upon San Francisco. The sound heard is from the same event. The longitude and latitude of each bombsite in SF is marked using a GPS device, the same technology used to target site in the Iraki town. These sites are mapped, chronicled and documented with photograph of what’s currently at these locations.

Caches are also placed at each GPS location containing project information and the names of US soldiers who died in the war since May 1, 2003, the date President Bush declared: “Major combat operations in Baghdad have ended.”

Baghdad San Francisco is the first project of the Shadows From Another Place series of hypothetical mappings which use GPS to imagine the impact of cultural and political changes that take place in one location upon another.

Part of the HTMLles festival in Montreal, May 18-21.