Street with a View: Art Meets Life in Google Street View

Artists Robin Hewlett and Ben Kinsley teamed up with the team at Google to create the "first-ever artistic intervention in Google Street View." They choose a street on Pittsburgh's north side to create a narrative that follows a fictional day in the life on Samposia Way. From the artists: "Neighbors, and other participants from around the city, staged scenes ranging from a parade and a marathon, to a garage band practice, a seventeenth century sword fight, a heroic rescue and much more..."

The scene breakdown provides a play-by-play of the moments you'll see as you scroll along the street. To create the project, organizers staged the scenes while Street View technicians captured 360-degree photographs from a camera placed on top of a car. Those images were then integrated into the Street View map system.

Over 100 neighbors and city-dwellers participated in the cast and staging. For more information, check out the project page along with several videos that document the effort that went into this project.

Photos: Street with a View

Comments (6)

FYI that's SIXBURGH football fans.

posted by denverdigs on February 9th 2009 at 7:21pm
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I want the Bike... What street is that on again? DO I find out on Google?

Melissa with Yourfurniturelink.com and Mortise & Tenon

posted by mortisetenon on February 9th 2009 at 7:24pm
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I wanna see this done in Brooklyn. And I dont live there.

posted by teeze on February 9th 2009 at 11:59pm
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This is a fantastic art project! I wrote about it a few months ago.

posted by visualingual on February 10th 2009 at 7:13am
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How did they find out when the Google Pic-mobile was coming around?

posted by spiralcma on February 10th 2009 at 11:30am
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Heyhi! I was involved in the project.

@mortisetenon: Here is a link to the actual Google Street View (and you can just move up and down the street to view the scenes): http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=500 Sampsonia Way, Pittsburgh, PA 15212&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=25.328532,58.535156&ie=UTF8&layer=c&cbll=40.456878,-80.01196&cbp=1,269.99762844634915,,0,2.1464567312664378&ll=40.459764,-80.012033&spn=0.011461,0.021565&z=16&g=500 Sampsonia Way, Pittsburgh, PA 15212&panoid=zHdES6mj-vBrH2nF-K9ROQ (You can't find it because the street name is actually Sampsonia Way, not "Samposia.")

@spiralcma: This is an art project of Ben Kinsley and Robin Hewlett...they were in talks with Google for months before the actual shooting. They did lots and lots of planning. The re-shooting of the street was in May 2008 and it went live on Google in November 2008.

posted by A Necessary Equal on February 14th 2009 at 8:43am
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