A ‘touch’ reveals the artistic side of Google Street View

Aside from being one of the internet’s best procrastination tools — OMG! Look, it’s my house! — Google Street View is also said to be a nifty tool for something or other. It has in no way been connected with any form of art however. Well, that is, until now. Award winning artist, Aaron Hobson, has shown the beauty that can be found in a series of Google StreetView images he calls “cinemascapes”.

Hobson introduces the series in true artist speak, musing that the images go “in search of enchanted and remote lands typically only reserved for the eyes of it’s (sic) inhabitants, but now are captured on camera by the automated and aesthetically-neutered google street view cars that linger”.

The images, from of a French forest to a scene from a Cape Town township, have been described as retouched on a number of blogs. Hobson decries this on his Facebook page, however, arguing — in another example of artist-speak — that “it was untouched to begin with so why the “re”? I am simply touching these images”.

Whether the images are “touched” or “retouched” is beside the point in our opinion. They are simply beautiful.

Here’s a selection of our favourites:

Route 17, South Africa

Cape Town, South Africa

Dearagon, Spain

Morrone Del Sannio, Italy

Saint-Nicolas-de-la-Grave, France

To view the entire collection click here.