In geoscience, a field book was a handwritten document of tables and sketches recording a surveyor’s results and notes collected in the field. In a similar way, Benedikt Terwiel’s Feldbuch contains the preparatory notes and charts needed to compile his photographic mapping work Ortsmessung in Zeiteinheiten, comprised of precise positions of measuring points plotted on a route across the city from east to west with lists recording the measuring points’ numbers and their street addresses along with other categories of information, such as the camera’s aperture settings and exposure times, the number of photos taken, and various handwritten entries and corrections by the artist. Terwiel precisely adheres to the rules of the discipline, which stipulate that field book entries cannot be adjusted unless the corrections are visible. The cover of the artist’s book shows a drawing charting the sun’s trajectory with the time and positions of the measuring points sketched along the day’s itinerary.
In its second part, Feldbuch displays nine computer graphics depicting the geodata-generated terrain of Berlin’s Südgelände (South Terrain), deprived of its natural elements (vegetation) or constructed objects (buildings)—as a deserted area reminiscent of an archaeological site seen from a distant future.