Embodied Airborne Imagery: Low-Altitude Urban Filmic Topography

Abstract

Aerial photography has been the leading method for collecting and mapping information via remote sensing from the environments such as cities. Usually the qualitative analysis of the images is performed by human observation in a form of descriptive pattern recognition and manual spatial associations. These techniques for many years have created unique means of remote sensing whether through software analysis of photographic or satellite data, however, they have always been recorded from high-altitudes using predominantly airplane, helicopter or satellite information where the resulting graphical product such as Google map is disembodied and detached from the real visible qualities which are evident in human scale. These maps reduce the city spaces into densities and statistics (Penz 2010). The purpose of this study is to reuse this already established technology in a way to reintroduction visualisation techniques that can be useful in the perception of the city and its architectural spaces. Using cinematic mode of representation, particularly the use of moving image and still image to recognize their aesthetics, the density and other qualitative information from specifically a low level altitude where the images can be embodied revealing their sensory such as haptic and other modality qualities.