5 Artistic Uses of Google Street View

Mark Wright is a freelance arts writer and assistant editor of the Image Source blog.

People are using Google Street View for more than checking travel routes. You can use the mapping tool to test hotel neighborhoods, to take virtual tours of the worlds most famous art galleries, or to arrange imagery for innovative photography and video projects.

SEE ALSO: Top 28 Google Street View Sightings

The Google Street View (GSV) car, fitted with 15 directional cameras, captures panoramas from over 30 countries but not without controversy. In 2010, GSV cars inadvertently collected payload data from unencrypted Wi-Fi networks, and a few weeks ago Google offered an opt-out from Wi-Fi tracking to curb further criticism. Similarly, privacy advocates object that the GSV cameras film potential break-ins, men entering adult bookstores and other activities people would prefer not be photographed.

Aaron Hobsons Cinemascapes project helps to remind us that Googles mapping tool still has its virtues. Hobsons photo series includes beautiful images of remote locations found on GSV.

And his photo collections are only the beginning. Read on to discover five creative uses of Google Street View imagery.

1. Aaron Hobson: Beautiful Images of Remote Locations

Photographer Aaron Hobson has combed GSV to find breathtaking images of mountain passes, crossroads and forests heavy with fog. The images proved so popular that last week his website crashed with the weight of 50,000 visitors in one day.

Hobson became addicted to this world of virtual travel after using GSV to scout locations for a film he is directing in Los Angeles. Soon he was exploring other places around the globe for his own amusement. I would start on a remote road in Norway, for example, and just go forward on it for miles and miles, he explained in an email interview. Hobson spent hours on GSV, strolling through empty countryside, tundra and deserts, remote locations of splendor and beauty.

Hobson doesnt add or remove anything from the original GSV image, and only performs minor retouching. I probably spend 5-10 minutes retouching each image before it is finalized, he said. I only use HD street views, so the images are very sh! arp to b egin with.

2. Tom Jenkins: Stop-Motion Adventure

Similar to Hobsons virtual world of travel, Jenkins stop-motion animation short, Address is Approximate, follows a lonely desk toy on a cross-country road trip. The three-minute GSV compilation was produced, animated, filmed, lit, edited and graded by Tom Jenkins, who joked to The Atlantic, I was the only crew member, which made for a depressing wrap party.

The Pixar-esque short has gone viral, generating 1.3 million views within eight days of its upload.

3. Arcade Fire: Childhood Nostalgia

Last year, rock band Arcade Fire, together with director Chris Milk and Google, launched an interactive video called The Wilderness Downtown. The promo for the bands song We Used to Wait was coded in HTML5 and designed to showcase the capabilities of Googles Chrome browser.

The experience starts by asking the viewer to enter her childhood address. The browser then splinters into multiple windows and produces images of the viewers personal geography (if enough footage exists) from GSV and Maps.

Cutting-edge web elements combine to produce a surprisingly emotional experience. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, director Chris Milk said Google Maps and Street View embody this contradiction of cold high-tech that can be incredibly emotional when used in the right context.

4. Doug Rickard: A Forgotten America

Whereas the previous artist! s celebr ate GSVs potential for virtual travel and emotional experience, the following collection showcases an incredibly different corner of society.

Photographer Doug Rickards A New American Picture takes us to the impoverished areas of Detroit, Memphis and Oakland. The GSV photographs offer voyeuristic glimpses of derelict houses and untended roads, a forgotten America captured with mechanical indifference, from high and distant vantage points. Oftentimes peoples faces are blurred (Googles solution to privacy issues).

5. Mishka Henner: A Social Statement

Photographer Mishka Henners No Mans Land series, self-published in book form, collects GSV screengrabs of roadside prostitutes in rural Italy. Henner decided to publish when he discovered online communities that use Street View to share information about the locations of sex workers one of the darker uses of GSV.