Jon Rafman: Nine Eyes of Google Street View
Jon Rafman: Nine Eyes of Google Street View
4/9—25/11 2024
Booklounge
Curated by: Martina Freitagová
Free entry
Video installation, 2008 – ongoing, 66 minutes
When Canadian artist Jon Rafman started collecting different views from Google Street View in 2008, the app was still relatively new. Google’s aim was primarily to help us navigate the world and provide useful information. From a plethora of seemingly neutral footage, Rafman selected a series of images presented on a variety of platforms from blogs, to PDFs, books and large format prints. Nine Eyes of Google Street View (named after the nine cameras mounted by Google on vehicles to capture data) at Kunsthalle Praha is a video installation commenting on the process of image creation and the nature of photography in the digital age. The simple selection, however, is set in the longer history of photography and painting and asks questions about the meaning and function of these images and their implications for artists and creators. At the same time, it explores themes of authorship and ownership, as well as the pervasive surveillance of our lives.
Jon Rafman (*1981)
As a Montreal born, Canadian artist Rafman is known for his complex work with video, animation, installation and sculpture, in which he focuses on our everyday life, dreams, fantasies, loss and grief in relation to digital technology. Rafman studied literature and philosophy before gaining a master's degree in the visual arts from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His work reflects a certain anthropological aspect of the search for humanity in the context of the virtual experience, which he acquired, as he himself notes, as a professional internet surfer. His work is often associated with the post-internet art movement and has been exhibited at several prestigious biennales (58th Venice Biennale, 13th Lyon Biennale, 9th Berlin Biennale, Manifesta 11) and is represented in collections at MoMa in New York, Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, and MAXXI in Rome.
Try the Geoguessr game! Use Google Street View and guess where a specific place is located in the world with the highest accuracy.
Tip: try to focus on things like road signs, street lights, typical plants or soil types, or different signage and specific diacritics.
The closer you get to the correct location, the more points you win!
The web game was founded in 2013 by Swede Anton Wallén, and with the spread of the covid pandemic in 2020, its player base grew, with people able to travel at least virtually. Some of the most successful players who can recognize an almost exact location in seconds include Mr. Rainbolt and Ludwig Ahgren. They also hold tournaments that you can join. The game is often used for educational purposes in geography classes or can be utilised for climate research with the help of AI. Critics, however, point to its Security implications as well as privacy issues.
