Clement Valla's Endangered Google Earth Glitches (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

Postcards from Google Earth, Bridges from clement valla on Vimeo.

A glitch is a shortlived fault in a system, and when it malfunctions it gives way to the bizarre. Though systems aim to eliminate these minor hiccups, which often go unnoticed, Clement Valla conserves them as if they were an endangered species worth saving.

The whole project began accidentally, when Valla was searching Google Earth and noticed something strange -- some of the buildings were upside down. Every so often, in an effort to convert 3-D space onto a 2-D computer screen, depth can become distorted, creating warped worlds which resemble the dream sequences in the movie 'Inception.'

Google is constantly correcting itself and thus Valla's snapshots are artifacts of endangered accidents, constantly being hunted by updated software. Many of the snapshots Valla has taken have since been revamped, flattened out, and made aesthetically understandable. It is bizarre indeed that the Dali-esque melting landscapes are the result of pure, algorithmic processes while the 'natural' looking landscapes require human interference.

In these moments the man and the machine perform nearly opposite functions. In Valla's words, "human and computer activity is hardly distinguishable. I am interested in the moments where the typical distinction is blurred or even inverted."

Valla's pictures bring you freeways that rumple like ribbons and metropolises that crest like tidal waves. And yet he is not the author of these works, only a captive bystander of accidents which would already occur, whether or not anyone was there to see them. He is, in his own way, a historian of accidents.

Valla received a BA in architecture from Columbia and an an MFA from RISD. He currently lives and works in Brooklyn.

Comments

[zelduh]

04:16 PM on 01/13/2012

Totally cool!

[madSomnambulist]

10:16 AM on 01/13/2012

The 'highway ribbon' issue is not an error of the program. Far from it-- it represents what the actual ground contours of that area. For example, in a few of the above examples it looks like a bridge across the freeway is "flattened", but from a geographic standpoint the road level is the correct measurement and not the artificial bridge spanning it. Only if/when Google Earth goes completely 3D along roadways to show bridges and tunnels would this look "normal". However, I won't at all deny the interesting way it manifests itself. It is most fascinating.

Banks on both sides of large roadways are often higher-- particularly in urban areas for sound control-- and exit ramps have embankments. Some of the altitude changes were there naturally and obviously some have been man-made. If one removed all the pavement from the ground the it would look almost natural.

Also worth noting is that in most all the above pictures the setting to exaggerate elevation change seems to be used.

Not all roads face this issue. Actually, the vast majority don't and those that do usually show up in larger cities. I'd have to assume its based on more recent, or (likely) more detailed USGS data taken at different times.