The dancing robots presented by Boston Dynamics were both fascinating and scary. Also eye-catching was the record of a flight by a pilot in Germany who flew a plane along a carefully planned course that sketched out a giant syringe on the flight recorder, like a hi-tech etch-a-sketch.
Month: December 2020
Mele Kalikimaka 2020
Mele kalikimaka 2020! It’s been a very difficult year for all of us. Economic hardships and the global Covid-19 epidemic have affected everyone this year. But despite the many difficulties the year has brought, I want to send out a quick message to wish you happy holidays and a good 2021!
Accidental Street Photography: Google Street View Scavengers
The launch of Google Street View services in 2007 was followed almost immediately by the emergence of its very own art genre: Street View Art. In 2011, just a few years after the launch of GSV, Pete Brook of Wired hailed the emergence of the new genre with exuberant excitement, announcing that
The Street View car is like the ultimate street photographer, a robo Cartier-Bresson methodically scouring the streets and documenting what it sees — Pete Brook, Wired
While Brook’s article offers a great selection of early Street View art, the comparison between a digital mapping machine and a hybrid mashup of RoboCop, a Hollywood created SciFi robotic police officer, and Henri Cartier-Bresson, the flesh and blood pioneer of street photography in the twentieth century, may seem hyperbolic and somewhat besides the point when it comes to the impact of Google’s Street View images on the arts and popular culture.
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