Seeing from Above: The Aerial View in Visual Culture

337 Pages·2013·72.17 MB·English

by  Mark Dorrian

MARK DORRIAN holds the Forbes Chair in Architecture at the University of Edinburgh.
FRÉDÉRIC POUSIN is Professor at École Nationale Supérieure de Paysage de Versailles.
‘Flying became possible because it was imagined. This is what a history of seeing from
above discloses: we visualised angelic mobility before we could design it. In this fascinating
collection the open eye of Google Earth retains at its vanishing point a turbulent history
of self-elevation: new suburbs far below look like ancient cities – or are they bomb sites?
Birds, mountains and clouds serve as armatures for cameras. An extraordinarily timely
survey of earth from the sky, full of virtuosic new insights, ethical as well as aesthetic
implications, and not without its share of vertigo.’
Paul Carter, author and artist
‘This uplifting collection of essays accounts comprehensively and for the first time for
one of the most important reorientations in the history of perception and the senses,
the capacity to see the world from above. The volume gives historical reach to the idea of
the aerial, tracking it back before the era of flight to earlier arguments and speculations.
Encompassing ballooning, architecture, photography, painting, cartography, urban
planning, military history and internet imaging, Seeing from Above assembles a dizzyingly
delicious panorama of ideas and arguments. In its mapping of what has become our
defining world picture, this is truly explication in excelsis.’
Steven Connor, Grace 2 Professor of English, University of Cambridge
‘In order to move deeper into the history of our modernity, one has to move upward.
But our gaze was not all that went with us into the altitudes; it was joined by cameras,
leaflets, bombs and computers, not to mention our poetic, philosophical and existential
contemplations. This book brings out aeriality’s multiple dimensions with such force that
by the end one feels that – despite our imprisonment to gravity – we really live not on the
earth, but at the bottom-most layer of a vast exospherical mirror filled with everything that
makes us human, from our highest ideals to our basest thoughts and ambitions.’
Mark Jarzombek, Professor of the History and Theory of
Architecture, School of Architecture and Planning, MIT
‘In the last decades of the twentieth century, aerial and satellite photography pervaded
our ways of seeing, but also our means of representing and managing the terrestrial
surface. Paradoxically, until now there has been little research investigating the drives
and consequences of such a change. Seeing from Above brings an innovative perspective
to the history of art, architecture and landscape and sheds new light on the construction
of images and their uses. This remarkable collection of richly illustrated essays – which
encompasses the analysis of etchings, of early cinematography, of views from balloons
and of Google Earth – will become a landmark for any scholar interested in the field of
visual culture.’
Vincent Piveteau, Director, École Nationale Supérieure de Paysage, Versailles
S E E I N G
F R O M
A B O V E
T H E A E R I A L V I E W
I N V I S U A L C U L T U R E
EDITED BY MARK DORRIAN AND FRÉDÉRIC POUSIN
Published in 2013 by I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd
6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU
175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010
www.ibtauris.com
Distributed in the United States and Canada Exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan
175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010
Copyright Editorial Selection and Introduction © 2013 Mark Dorrian, Frédéric Pousin
Copyright Individual Chapters © 2013 Stephen Bann, Jean-Marc Besse, Michael Bury, Teresa Castro, Ella
Chmielewska, Mark Dorrian, David Hopkins, Christina Lodder, Olivier Lugon, John Macarthur, Frédéric
Pousin, Marie-Claire Robic, Nathalie Roseau, Marie Thébaud-Sorger, Gilles Tiberghien, Marina Warner
The right of Mark Dorrian and Frédéric Pousin to be identified as the editors of this work has been asserted
by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be
reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the
publisher.
ISBN: 978 1 78076 460 3 (HB)
978 1 78076 461 0 (PB)
A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available
Printed and bound in Great Britain by T.J. International, Padstow, Cornwall
Contents
List of Figures vii
Acknowledgements xvii
List of Contributors xix
Introduction 1
Mark Dorrian and Frédéric Pousin
1. Intimate Communiqués: Melchior Lorck’s Flying Tortoise 11
Marina Warner
2. The Meaning of Roman Maps: Etienne Dupérac and
Antonio Tempesta 26
Michael Bury
3. Thomas Baldwin’s Airopaidia, or the Aerial View in Colour 46
Marie Thébaud-Sorger
4. European Cities from a Bird’s-eye View: The Case of Alfred Guesdon 66
Jean-Marc Besse
5. Nadar’s Aerial View 83
Stephen Bann
6. Transfiguring Reality: Suprematism and the Aerial View 95
Christina Lodder
7. Aerial Views and Cinematism, 1898–1939 118
Teresa Castro
8. ‘The Domain of Rrose Sélavy’: Dust Breeding and Aerial Photography 134
David Hopkins
vi SEEING FROM ABOVE
9. The Aviator and the Photographer: The Case of Walter Mittelholzer 147
Olivier Lugon
10. From the Sky to the Ground: The Aerial View and the Ideal of the
Vue Raisonnée in Geography during the 1920s 163
Marie-Claire Robic
11. The Figure from Above: On the Obliqueness of the Plan in Urbanism
and Architecture 188
John Macarthur
12. The City Seen from the Aeroplane: Distorted Reflections and
Urban Futures 210
Nathalie Roseau
13. Vectors of Looking: Reflections on the Luftwaffe’s Aerial Survey of
Warsaw, 1944 227
Ella Chmielewska
14. The Aerial View and the Grands Ensembles 249
Frédéric Pousin
15. Robert Smithson and Aerial Art 277
Gilles A. Tiberghien
16. On Google Earth 290
Mark Dorrian
Index 309
Figures
CHAPTER 1
Intimate Communiqués
1.1: Melchior Lorck, Tortoise, with a view of a walled coastal town in
the Veneto. © Trustees of the British Museum. 14
1.2: Melchior Lorck, View over roofs toward the Column of Arcadios
in Constantinople. Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen/
SMK Photo. 16
1.3: Melchior Lorck, Detail, View over roofs toward the Column of
Arcadios in Constantinople. Statens Museum for Kunst,
Copenhagen/SMK Photo. 18
1.4: Melchior Lorck, Portrait of Suleiman. © Trustees of the British
Museum. 19
1.5: Melchior Lorck, Prospect of Constantinople (section). Leiden
University Library, ms. BPL 1758, sheets 7–12. 20–21
1.6: Melchior Lorck, View of Mecca. © British Library Board. 23
CHAPTER 2
The Meaning of Roman Maps
2.1: Etienne Dupérac, Nova Urbis Romae Descriptio, 1577. © British
Library Board, Maps *23805.(8.). 27
2.2: Antonio Tempesta, Recens prout hodie iacet almae Urbis Romae
… Prospectus, 1593. Leiden University Library, Printroom. 28–29
viii SEEING FROM ABOVE
2.3: Leonardo Bufalini, Roma, 1551 (1560 reprint). © British Library
Board, Maps S.T.R. (1). 30
2.4: Bartolomeo Marliani, Plan of Ancient Rome, 1544. Bryn Mawr
College Library, Special Collections. 32–33
2.5: Anonymous, View of Rome, copied from the original of Francesco
Rosselli. Museo della Città di Palazzo San Sebastiano, Mantua. 34
2.6: Detail of Dupérac, 1577: Theatre of Marcellus with modern
buildings within it. 35
2.7: Ugo Pinard, Urbis Romae Descriptio (engraved by Jacob Bos), 1555. 38–39
2.8: Detail of Tempesta, 1593: south-west zone of the city. 40
2.9: Detail of Dupérac, 1577: Porta Latina. 41
CHAPTER 3
Thomas Baldwin’s Airopaidia, or the Aerial View in Colour
3.1: The BALLOON over HELSBYE HILL in CHESHIRE, from
Thomas Baldwin, Airopaidia (1786). © British Library Board,
1137.c.17. 48
3.2: A VIEW from the BALLOON at its GREATEST elevation, from
Thomas Baldwin, Airopaidia (1786). © British Library Board,
1137.c.17. 58
3.3: A BALLOON PROSPECT from ABOVE the CLOUDS, from
Thomas Baldwin, Airopaidia (1786). © British Library Board,
1137.c.17. 60
3.4: The EXPLANATORY Print, from Thomas Baldwin, Airopaidia
(1786). © British Library Board, 1137.c.17. 61
CHAPTER 4
European Cities from a Bird’s-eye View
4.1: A. Guesdon, ‘Madrid. View overlooking the Plaza de Toros’, in
L’Espagne à vol d’oiseau (1854). © Bibliothèque Nationale de France,
Prints Collection, SNR-3 Alfred Guesdon. 69
FIGURES ix
4.2: A. Guesdon, ‘The Valley of Chamonix and Mont Blanc’, in La
Suisse à vol d’oiseau (1859). © Bibliothèque Nationale de France,
Prints Collection, SNR-3 Alfred Guesdon. 73
4.3: A. Guesdon, ‘Bird’s-Eye View of the Theatre of War at the Gates
of Sevastopol’, L’Illustration, vol. XXIV, n.618, 3 December (1854),
440–1. Bibliothèque municipale de Lille, P 906. 74–75
4.4: A. Guesdon, ‘View of Barcelona from Above the Entrance to
the Harbour’ (detail), in L’Espagne à vol d’oiseau (1855).
© Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Prints Collection, SNR-3
Alfred Guesdon. 78
4.5: A. Guesdon, ‘The Lyon-Geneva Railway Line’, L’Illustration, vol.
XXXI, n.786, 20 March (1858), 180. Bibliothèque municipale
de Lille. 79
CHAPTER 5
Nadar’s Aerial View
5.1: Richborow Castle of the Romans, 7 October 1722, engraving after
a drawing by William Stukeley (1687–1765), author’s collection. 85
5.2: Nadar, Nadar with his Wife, Ernestine, in a Balloon, c.1865, printed
1890s. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gilman Collection,
Museum Purchase, 2005 (2005.100.313). Image © The
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 87
CHAPTER 6
Transfiguring Reality
6.1: Malevich, Analytical Chart No. 16: The Relationship between the
Painterly Perception and the Environment of the Artist (in Cubism,
Futurism and Suprematism), c.1925, printed and painted paper,
gelatin silver prints, ink, crayon and pencil on paper, 72.4 x 98.4 cm,
Museum of Modern Art, New York. © 2013. Digital image, The
Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence. 96