6/29/2023 0 Comments Google maps satellite view2 to 30 at Breeze Block Gallery in Portland, Ore. A solo exhibition of her work will be on view from Aug. Jenny Odell is a San Francisco based artist. This time around, the focus is our collective preoccupation with stuff both tangible and not: movies, cell phones, alcohol, marriage counseling and weight loss are just a few of the topics to fall within Odell’s examination. Odell’s most recent project, Signs of Life, which she began this year, expands on her previous projects and explores life from Google’s satellite view. Final square-shaped images of 144 empty parking lots, or every basketball court in Manhattan, tell a story of our world from a perspective unusual for the human eye. ![]() ![]() I’m interested in the strangeness of a particular site or location.” After making her selections, she makes screen grabs of the items and then brings the files into PhotoShop to cut them out of their surroundings. “This work is about a greater idea of space. “By working with the map labels turned off, I’m free to move about and explore freely,” says Odell. The photographer is often unaware of ‘where’ she is on the map, but then again, it’s not really important to her. 1 On Google Maps, using satellite view, when moving to new area, the edges turn white then loads the images-like squares-dumping the image then reloading. Her project Satellite Collections, created from 2009-2011, uses the satellite view on Google Maps to find objects as diverse as airplanes, basketball courts and even water slides from places all over the world, which Odell then compiles into pictures-a selection of which is on view at Breeze Block Gallery in Portland, Ore. Interested in the complexities of technology-its progress and efficiency models, alongside the hiccups and mistakes inherent in web applications like Google Maps-Odell found inspiration in the two seemingly divergent paths. in photography at the San Francisco Art Institute. After studying English in undergrad, Odell went on to receive her M.F.A. Odell grew up in the Bay Area, and not unlike many in the area, was born to parents in the tech industry. ![]() But for artist Jenny Odell, Google Maps is a tool to see, cut up and re-imagine her world in a new, photographic way. For the average person, Google Maps is a website used to locate an address on a map, find directions from one place to another and see what areas around the world look like from a bird’s eye perspective.
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