Journal | JoLMA
Journal issue | 5 | 1 | 2024
Research Article | A View From Above
A View From Above
Vertical Perspective in the Age of Total Images
Abstract
Thanks to the technological dislocation of the eye of the beholder, the mechanical eye or both of them together, along recent decades the view from above has become a widespread, somehow trivial way to experience the world, imposing a new scopic regime. Deeply enmeshed and dependent upon technologies of surveillance, vertical perspective does not only democratize the point of view of the power: it provides us with an inhuman gaze on the world, liberating images from the constraints of naked human vision and erasing the distinction between images and maps, producing what Peraica has called total images. These topics are explored through a number of case studies from the visual arts.
Submitted: Feb. 1, 2024 | Accepted: March 4, 2024 | Published July 26, 2024 | Language: en
Keywords Surveillance technologies • Drone photography • Machine gaze • Scopic regime • Vertical perspective
Copyright © 2024 Domenico Quaranta. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/Jolma/2723-9640/2024/01/011
