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Google Earth is ugly: artists debate at RMIT Gallery
Google Earth is ugly, Google Earth is useful. Google Earth gives the illusion of
closeness, of understanding places, of fostering a familiarity with the rest of the
world. Where do we stand on Google Earth?
Key figures from the creative arts across the globe will debate this issue at RMIT
Gallery on Tuesday, 3 August, from noon to 1pm at a seminar “Where on (Google)
Earth are we?” Entry free – bookings (03) 9925 1717.
Visiting German artist Heidi Specker and Austrian architect and writer Theo
Deutinger will join US architect Gretchen Wilkins (Editor of Distributed Urbanism:
Cities After Google Earth, 2010 – to be launched by Japanese architect Hitoshi
Abe at RMIT Gallery on 9 August) and poet Ann Shenfield, (You Can Get Only So
Close on Google Earth, 2010), along with (chair) Professor Paul James, Director of
the Global Cities Institute at RMIT University and Director of the United Nations
Global Compact Cities Programme.
Ms Specker and Mr Deutinger are in Melbourne for the opening of their
photography and text exhibition HELP ME, I AM BLIND at RMIT Gallery (runs until
11 September), which looks at the meaning of homeland in the global age.
Mr Deutinger, who is in Australia for the first time, claims he is more intrigued by
“seeing an Aldi and Ikea sign than Aboriginals – by that I mean I look for what I
know already, which is an inverse version of tourism. I want to see exactly what I
know, which is why I loved seeing ABBA on the Federation Square screen.”
As an acclaimed visual artist, Ms Specker is dismissive of the ugliness that Google
Earth projects. “And yet HELP ME, I AM BLIND was created with the technology of
the internet. It allowed Theo and I to exchange daily images and texts from across
the globe to discuss what homeland is and create a book and exhibition.”
Professor Paul James said Google Earth helped people to feel that they were
interconnected around the globe. But what does this mean?
“Google Earth is symbolic of a shift that called us to be active subjects of our own
obsession with global connectivity. It has given us God-like powers: we can look
down upon localities across the world from the safety of our computers. How do we
feel about this? How do artists respond to this? Has urban planning changed for
the better with this technology?
“What have we gained and what have we lost? I anticipate a robust debate as we
explore the consequences of Google Earth and its impact on the creative arts,
architecture and people’s sense of the world,” Professor James said.
For media enquiries, photos and interviews with participants: RMIT Gallery
Media Coordinator, Evelyn Tsitas, (03) 9925 1716, 0418 139 015, or
evelyn.tsitas@rmit.edu.au.
30 July, 2010
NEWS 
