view from above

a few things lately have me thinking about this easily accessable sense of place (and subsequently self) that strangely comes from the macro method of google mapping. (i've got ideas formulating for a summer project exploiting google maps with the pen tool...) apparently, the latest news from australia is that "a melbourne man has completed a six-month-long quest to turn topography into typography" with a google maps alphabet. some of the letterforms are much more successful than others, but the idea of being able to totally re-interprete places that we traverse daily (or places we'll never actually visit, for that matter) within minutes from such a radical birds eye view is certainly enticing.

(it actually reminds me of some arial photography from a professor here at mica. some of those prints are hanging in the lobby of the gateway, and i was puzzled for so long trying to figure out if it was a painting or something digitally manipulated. turns out it's neither...)