Google Street View’s mapping of the territory is an opaque surveillance machine which, due to its priorities, leaves parts of the map blank. This used to be the case with military maps of strategic locations too, with the difference that back then they concealed information through censorship, whereas now they do so by providing incorrect information. Perhaps because the data is no longer up to date? This creates a false sense of continuity whilst discontinuity is spreading at breakneck speed. All the data on which these photo maps are based is outdated, probably due to the real-time process. This creates a de facto anachronism, which is further exacerbated by variable updates. This representation of the world, entrusted to the manipulation of algorithms, is therefore an illusory hodgepodge of datasets that only partially align or overlap randomly in a presentation designed to fill a screen entirely. In that respect, such representations of the world are an example of academic camouflage, which, for the sake of a low-definition overall impression, make accurate deciphering impossible and are therefore of little practical use.

This discrepancy between successive images and chronological inconsistencies creates temporal creases in the maps – abandoned industrial estates or wasteland at best, and zones lacking usable data where economic or political interests are at stake. As in the past, optical illusion is an instrument of power. And since we are dealing with a totalitarian system that does not reveal itself and hides behind confusion, the fifteen cameras on the Street View cars are partly blind and deaf, like any process of assimilation. This, in fact, prevents interference from resurgences of democracy. However, if an artist wishes to work with urban space, they must not only take into account the mystagogy, the visual dictates and the verbal justifications of various kinds. It is also important that, before creating at any cost, they understand the context by confronting different interpretations with one another. The machine that falsifies the world – we hardly speak of illusions any more – not only suffers from involuntary urination, but also experiences blackouts, which is a good thing, and incoherencies in the form of gaps. Through which air, light and meaning pass.