Lookout Points-Part 1

Thinking back to the idea of lookout points and what you see from these points. Some questions that keep popping up in my mind are; What is there first thing some one looks at? Do you at the furthest point first? or do you look at points where are more in the foreground?

Personally I tend to look at the furthest point first then scan from there back to where Im situated. (usually when I'm looking I look from left to right)

With modern technology we now have a number of different ways in which people can survey/observe the land, or as Rem Koolhaas said "inspect their domain."1 Satellites images allow the viewing of land from a birds eye view (similar to a regular map) but with a huge amount of detail shown. With satellite images though you loose the ability in some cases to see how elevated certain areas are. With these images unlike what I said above there is not one particular point I look at first-as everything appears to be the same distance away.

Above: Satellite image of San Francisco from Google Maps.2

Google Earth is another form of technology which allows us to observe the land from above but also get down on street level and experience a place in 3D (through a 2D computer screen) without even being there. In saying that I really dont think you get the full idea of what the place is actually like.

Airplanes are another way of viewing land from above. Below are some photo taken of Miami, Florida from a plane. You will see how the closer the planes gets to ground level the more 3 dimensional the land appears while the higher in the sky the plane is the land appear much more like it does in a satellite image.

Above: Series of 4 photographs taken from a plane over Miami, Florida. Photos taken by Natasha Hale 2008.

1. Koolhaas, Rem 1994, Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan, The Monacelli Press Inc., New York. (pg 25)

2.Google Maps: San Francisco [Online] Available: http://maps.google.co.nz/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=san+francisco&sll=-41.244772,172.617188&sspn=38.346014,75.9375&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=San+Francisco,+California,+United+States&ll=37.795203,-122.427435&spn=0.039541,0.074158&t=k&z=14