Showing posts with label total vision. Show all posts
Showing posts with label total vision. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Monday, November 26, 2007
ABC/Facebook and National Politics
I came across this article today and found it interesting. The ability to "follow" reporters in the field and possibly respond to the way they portray an issue is a complicated issue. On the one hand, I like the idea that we have extended the breadth of communication through the internet to the point that we have "full coverage" of everything, thus allowing informed, nuanced positions to be made available to everyone. On the other hand, this sort of full coverage means a loss in the spirit of change: as we collapse extension and duration into mere communication, change cannot manifest in the world-shaping ways. We no longer experience revolution, only the continual reification of the present moment, a history forever paused in an extended modernness.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Google Maps Street View
Having recently moved to San Francisco, I've found that the housing market here is not only exceedingly competitive, but quite disheartening as well. That aside (I have another blog for emotions), today I found the wonderous/daunting Google Maps Street View.
San Francisco, being the darling cultural gem in gem in geeked out Silicon Valley, is one of the cities that Google has photographed so extensively as to offer a view of houses right at their front doors. Not all of the city has been shot so far, but I assume that will come shortly. Basically, one is able to view a Google map and, in some locations, shift the perspective to the street. Not only can I see where the house that I'm visiting is located, I can get a look at the outside of the place before I even take the time to go there.
Useful? Only sort of. But a good reminder that we must, from now on, be aware of the fact that vision is becoming total; its scale is widening, becoming more precise and having more depth of field -- which itself basically gives way to another moment of vision, as in Google Maps Street View. In the web 2.0 program, you can actually see people on the street who happened to be there the moment Google took the picture. They exist like some strange ghost-like presence, perpetually tagged into the landscape for the world to see. You can make out their faces, see their boredom, their hurrying steps, or a personal smile to themselves as they walk to work.
Diving in to see people heading to work, going about their day.
The map:
View Larger Map
The street:
Upclose, forever bonded to this simulacral space:
San Francisco, being the darling cultural gem in gem in geeked out Silicon Valley, is one of the cities that Google has photographed so extensively as to offer a view of houses right at their front doors. Not all of the city has been shot so far, but I assume that will come shortly. Basically, one is able to view a Google map and, in some locations, shift the perspective to the street. Not only can I see where the house that I'm visiting is located, I can get a look at the outside of the place before I even take the time to go there.
Useful? Only sort of. But a good reminder that we must, from now on, be aware of the fact that vision is becoming total; its scale is widening, becoming more precise and having more depth of field -- which itself basically gives way to another moment of vision, as in Google Maps Street View. In the web 2.0 program, you can actually see people on the street who happened to be there the moment Google took the picture. They exist like some strange ghost-like presence, perpetually tagged into the landscape for the world to see. You can make out their faces, see their boredom, their hurrying steps, or a personal smile to themselves as they walk to work.
Diving in to see people heading to work, going about their day.
The map:
View Larger Map
The street:
Upclose, forever bonded to this simulacral space:
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