Since Chicago is my new adopted home I thought it best to start the Electro-Map tour here. Scott Howard has created an elegantly simple portrait of Chicago by night which is comprised of 194 individual photos, all taken within a 58 minute period on the night of a full moon. This zoom-able, scalable composite photo is more like a still-life than anything else. You can almost count the number of books on people’s shelves in the Ebony Jet building, yet every lamp-lit room is mysteriously empty.
I’m also very fond of his daytime overhead shot of Machu Picchu. I have never been, but several years ago I visited a friend’s parents who had just returned from a trip to Peru, and I think it’s the only time I’ve wished that someone’s home videos would never end. They showed me sections of a lengthy train ride, and I am a sucker for trains…my favorite way to travel. None of the nausea of buses or cars & so much easier to appreciate the scope of a landscape.
Machu Picchu’s section of their video was very emotional. Hearing their memories, impassioned descriptions of the stonework, and seeing the mythic misty imagery… Howard’s online portrait is a fantastic first step towards realistic armchair tourism, with no ecological damage.
Tomorrow, I sing the body electro.
Posted by Vaucanson's Duck 
Robotic Librarian 