The Jefferson Grid

INFO

I’m a photographer and digital media artist working at the intersection of architecture, archives, technology, and politics. In my works, I use 3D modeling, mapping, internet-based tools, and more to examine archival photographic materials and their relations to geographies of conflict and displacement, especially in Palestine. My practice is engaged with issues of social justice, human rights, and anti-colonialism, and their application in art and media.

Artist Statement / CV

Brooklyn, NY

tai.shabtai@gmail.com
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For the last year I’ve been collecting satellite images of parcels, neighborhoods, plots and towns, all part of the same grid that defines the land distribution in most of the US territories. The Public Land Survey System was proposed by Thomas Jefferson at the end of the 18th century, during the expansion of the US westward. It was an innovative method to divide and sell the ownership of the large expanses of newly acquired and unknown territories. More than 200 years later, the grid still defines the geography and landscape of most of midwest and western US.

- 2016

https://www.instagram.com/the.jefferson.grid/

Even When You Go Off the Grid, You Might Still Be On It, New York Times, August 26, 2015:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/cp/summer-of-science-2015/latest/jefferson-grid

Orbital View: Where’d You Go, Jefferson Grid?, Chris Bodenner, The Atlantic Magazine, December 17, 2015:
https://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2015/12/orbital-view-whered-you-go-jefferson-grid/421140/

Phases Magazine:
https://www.phasesmag.com/shabtai-pinchevsky/the-jefferson-grid/