Google Street View has been grabbing headlines these days because Google recently admitted that their cars had inadvertently collected personal data from unprotected Wi-Fi networks.The FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief even said that these cars “collected passwords, e-mails and other personal information.” While Google has now announced that they’re deleting this data, the images these cars capture will still live on.
Street View photography became the project of one man, Jon Rafman, back in 2009. The Montreal, Canada-based artist saw the nine cameras mounted on Google cars as a window into our modern world. He called his series Nine Eyes of Google Street View.
“The world captured by Google appears to be more truthful and more transparent because of the weight accorded to external reality, the perception of a neutral, unbiased recording, and even the vastness of the project. At the same time, I acknowledge that this way of photographing creates a cultural text like any other, a structured and structuring space whose codes and meaning the artist and the curator of the images can assist in constructing or deciphering.”
This photos are an interesting way of looking at what’s happening all around us, a collection of experiences, if you will. It speaks to our search for connectedness and significance, often revealing life’s most vulnerable moments.
