Although never really vocalizing it I guess my focus for this module has always been based around the virtual space of the Internet and how it relates to the real world. My original thoughts on this project revolved around the idea of virtual tourism, as it was to some extent something I had done before. Trying to find place I had read or heard about on Google earth to gain some kind of real world sense of it.
However I became slightly side tracked with my idea of utilizing the local webcam I had discovered. Turning my thinking on its head in that instead of placing myself virtually in a distant location I wanted to place something in a real location, which would result in it being made present in the virtual world. Which other people would be able to view from anywhere in the world. However my plan became overly complex and by the time I was ready it was no longer a possibility.
Falling back onto my original idea of virtual tourism I decided to pick a walking tour somewhere in the States. Originally looking at San Francisco and then later deciding on Boston ‘Freedom Trail’ I put my idea into practice. The experience was surprisingly engrossing and despite a few glitches it was surprisingly effective. Part of me did feel like Id been to Boston and having read the book as I had made my way along, I felt liked Id really learned something and been able to contextualize it.
Following on from this I struggled to conceive an idea for a final piece but eventually decided on an animation made from Google earth screens. My idea being to fully reflect the sense of 3d space in the real world which you can grasp from the Google world map (even prior to their later updates) I chose the Arc de Triomphe simply because it sits in the center of a roundabout and is a very well known landmark. The final animation is a Gif so that the rotation will run continually and also to maximize it for use on the internet.
