Who knew Google was hiding an artistic touch in Google Earth? Clement Valla, an artist, fiddled with Google Earth and found some amazingly surrealist images. Turns out, when you zoom in at just the right angle, bridges droop dramatically, 2D roads look pasted on in a 3D world and the entire world looks like it's melting.
Here's what Valla says about the pictures:
"The images are screenshots from Google Earth with basic color adjustments and cropping. I am collecting these new typologies as a means of conservation - as Google Earth improves its 3D models, its terrain, and its satellite imagery, these strange, surrealist depictions of our built environment and its relation to the natural landscape will disappear in favor of better illusionistic imagery.
Valla wants to preserve these images so that we remember how awkward technology and reality once co-existed. I just love 'em cause they're funny lookin'. [Clement Valla via DVICE]
I love how the bridge disappears and then pops back up again.
Bridges really get twisted in Valla's collection.
Gnarly drive.
This would make for a great roller coaster, actually.
DISCUSSION
This isn't art... it's satellite imagery mapped to terrain depth. If Google made all of these roads 3D models to stand above the terrain correctly, Google Earth wouldn't run on today's computers.