Dérive (in Google Earth)

Media Art

2015

Dérive (in Google Earth) is an exploration of algorithmic topography. Google Earth combines satellite images and 3D rendering software to create a ‘virtual globe.’ Sometimes this software can reveal landmarks that would have previously gone unnoticed and weather patterns only detected by algorithms.

Starting in cyberspace, we let ourselves drift and be drawn by the strange geography of the algorithmic terrain of the virtual city of Buffalo. Then we traced the same path through the city, locating the previously overlooked landmarks and photographing them. The video documents what we found.

Dérive (in Google Earth) is a collaboration with Derek Curry.
Soundtrack courtesy of Skyphone.