When was the last time that anyone in your city stopped you to ask directions? Google Maps and Google Street View, a.k.a. GSV, have almost completely eradicated the need for such natural behaviour. Now our directions are given by the omnipresent Google and there is no longer any need for the slightest human interaction to find where we want to go, as lost as we may be. GSV has taken this convenience to a new dimension with the opportunity to see streets in practically any location on earth. Thanks to this travelling almost anywhere in the world at the click of a mouse has become a global pastime. But the true interest lies in the fact that this world image bank, compiled after years of work by the company vehicle, has also left an extensive archive of moments from our daily lives: some of them mundane, others surprising. <\/p>\n
Many artists and creative studios have been able to see that what this tool, indispensable though it may be, hides is a true lack of aesthetic intention. But if real life can provide the inspiration for artistic creation, in other words life without additions or manipulations, then Google Street View is the biggest source of artistic inspiration ever to be created. On its route through the thousand million places it has recorded, the GSV camera has captured moments that make coincidental, surreal, tragic and even funny situations tangible. <\/p>\n
The first example combines the power of GSV and the human desire to see the world without moving off the sofa. The creative agency Teehan+Lax has made the tedious experience of \u201ctravelling\u201d the world click by click into a digital road trip. The Google Street View Hyperlapse<\/a> project combines time-lapse techniques with film offcuts, to create the sensation of travelling along the road in a car. <\/p>\n