Earthscape is an interesting application for the iPhone that will allow you to “geobrowse” by zooming in and out of Earth images that change perspective according to how you tilt the phone. I’m a bit fascinated by our ability to view earth via images. McLuhan observed that once we saw Earth from satellites, the planet became a work of art. Others have argued that we are simultaneously leaving our bodies and looking at ourselves from the outside, creating a curious dynamic of being and observed at the same time. Does the reduction of Earth to a 3-D photo map mean we are interacting with it more, and seeing more “truth,” or is it simply another way to conquer the territory by thingifying it as an image? It’s probably all these things are true at once, so it’s difficult to know what the consequences of these kinds of apps will be. One thing is for sure, you gotta love the new euphamisms coming out of tech, such as Earthscape’s promise that with its software you can “experience social geobrowsing.”
Via Daily Galaxy
