Two Pittsburgh artists entered the world of
Google Maps Street View, creating the first artistic rendering in the history of the 360-degree mapping platform.
With the help of the Google Street View team out of San Francisco,
Robin Hewlett and
Ben Kinsley, both graduates of Carnegie Mellon, orchestrated a fictional day in the life of Sampsonia Way and captured it Google-style, with a little help from an eclectic cast of characters.
Street View allows users to click on image areas on Google street maps and take a 360-degree tour of an area. The artists basically asked themselves, what if we knew the Google car was coming up the street and we could pose for the camera? The community responded in a big way.
"This project is at the intersection of art and emerging technologies," says Inscho. "In essence, it tells the story of why this short, one-way alley on the North Side of Pittsburgh is the most interesting street in the world at this moment in time"
Navigating into the world of the Sampsonia alley, you may find yourself in the midst of a marching band, a man dressed as a bird, a garage band, a seventeenth century sword fight or a corner poultry sculpture. The scene was captured in one day last May by Google; the production took 6 months and the street view went live this month.
Kinsley grew up Ohio, went to CMU grad school and is currently in Iceland for an artist's residency. Hewlett worked in Pittsburgh until recently and formerly operated
Spare Room— an artist residency, performance venue
and exhibition space in Pittsburgh.
A cast of real-life characters contributed their time, energy and talents to the whimsical-street life scenes. Check out the
scene breakdown, the
participant page and the
video documentation to learn more.
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Writer:
Deb SmitSource: Jeffrey Inscho, Mattress Factory