Drawing a Panoramic Imaginary

Throughout history forms of representation have profoundly shaped the way we see and operate within the built environment. Today, Google Street View (GSV) can be understood as one of the most ubiquitous modes of orientation in our daily life, radically transforming the way in which we engage with the world around us. With this paper I will position GSV within a long lineage of immersive media, from panoramas to early cinematic images, to move past ideas of ‘objective representation’ and to highlight its potential as a site for design investigations. In order to foreground the relevance of these contemporary imaging technologies and immersive platforms of vision as instigators of a disciplinary conversation on representation, I will present some of my students’ work alongside ‘Arctic LiDAR’, an immersive video installation I am currently developing. Here the tension between the aesthetic realms of human and machinic vision, the collapse of multiple territories in a composite digital modeland the temporary displacement of viewers to remote and inaccessible sites, much like the infrastructure provided by GSV, become critical tools to shape contemporary subjectivities. Immersive representation to move from the known to the unknown.

https://doi.org/10.35483/ACSA.AM.107.41

Volume Editors
Amy Kulper, Grace La & Jeremy Ficca

ISBN
978-1-944214-21-0