Project Description

Perfect View is an exploration of landscape, technology, and the network of independent explorers utilizing GPS to implement their excursions. Geocaching enthusiasts across the U.S. were asked to recommend locations they thought were sublime. The latitude and longitude coordinates provided by the respondents became the waypoints (guide points) for a thirty-three state, thirteen thousand mile motorcycle expedition and the subject matter of this project.

The exhibited pieces are triptychs that juxtapose three different ways of viewing these supposed sublime sites including panoramic photographic documentation, satellite aerial imagery of the location, and 3D computer graphic imagery of the topography using USGS topographical data as a source.

The work plays on our extraordinary ability to re-present nature while the qualities of sublimity remain elusive. The project reflects on parallels between technological and philosophical developments during the Enlightenment and those of our current ‘high-tech’ period, spawning some questions for thought: How does our ability to not only see land from satellites but also create digital reproductions of it affect our perception of the land? How does the process of locating a sublime site with technological aids, as opposed to serendipity, affect our experience of the sublime?