Nine eyes, no brain
November 16, 2010 2:06 PM   Subscribe

9eyes is a blog by Jon Rafman, featuring a collection of interesting images found on Google StreetView.
posted by flatluigi (56 comments total) 34 users marked this as a favorite
 
Previously...
posted by Perplexity at 2:08 PM on November 16, 2010


The one of the kid on his back on the skateboard is AWESOME.
posted by circular at 2:10 PM on November 16, 2010


I missed this one the first time around, and maybe it'll get deleted, but even so, I would like to say: Where the fuck are the gorillas? What road are you driving along which is both a) in a country with sufficiently advanced telecommunications infrastructure for it to be worth google's while to do street level mapping, and b) in a country where there are fucking gorillas just maxin' by the roadway? It doesn't look like a zoo.
posted by Diablevert at 2:13 PM on November 16, 2010


This not at all what I expected.

[this is good]

Erm, what's the deal with the obviously photoshopped ones? Like this one?
posted by metaxa at 2:14 PM on November 16, 2010


I'm waiting for a Google Street car to take a photo of a Google Street car protest, or something else decidedly meta.
posted by Askiba at 2:16 PM on November 16, 2010


Are these all faked or what? Why aren't there links to view in Google Maps?
posted by Perplexity at 2:17 PM on November 16, 2010 [1 favorite]


This one is fantastic.

A little too much LOLPROSTITUTES in the selections though.
posted by benzenedream at 2:18 PM on November 16, 2010 [5 favorites]


I don't understand how all the images of the zoo animals (especially the orcas) were captured. Did the Google Street car/van/whatever just drive right through the zoo?

Also, because this is probably the only place I can mention this and have it be on-topic: I'm on Google Street View in my home town, walking out of an opticians. So if anyone needs directions to me, that's where I am. For eternity.
posted by fight or flight at 2:19 PM on November 16, 2010


Zoos and boobs.

Zoobs.
posted by gottabefunky at 2:24 PM on November 16, 2010 [3 favorites]


Erm, what's the deal with the obviously photoshopped ones? Like this one?

That reminds me of the picture my parents took of me at Zion National Park. Orange background, me in blue+white striped polo shirt. Looks EXACTLY like I was photoshopped in. Looks faker than fake. But I was really there.

If it hadn't been 1993, I don't think my science teacher would have given me the extra credit.
posted by circular at 2:25 PM on November 16, 2010


I don't understand how all the images of the zoo animals (especially the orcas) were captured. Did the Google Street car/van/whatever just drive right through the zoo?

Google Street View Trike
posted by hippybear at 2:36 PM on November 16, 2010 [1 favorite]


The one of the kid on his back on the skateboard is AWESOME.
posted by circular


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_luge

posted by blaneyphoto at 2:46 PM on November 16, 2010


Yes, the lack of any context is both interesting, and really annoying.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:48 PM on November 16, 2010 [2 favorites]


I'm on street view, wandering the streets of my home town, and my brother is on there, walking around near his house in London. I'm slightly afraid that the google street view car is a bit like the shark in Jaws 4 and it's going to track down my entire family and eat them.
posted by dng at 2:48 PM on November 16, 2010 [2 favorites]


So... Google did a street view of Antarctica for some reason? Or is there another explanation for the penguin one?
posted by Navelgazer at 3:01 PM on November 16, 2010


So... Google did a street view of Antarctica for some reason?

Yes.
posted by zsazsa at 3:13 PM on November 16, 2010


Yes, the lack of any context is both interesting, and really annoying.

The lack of information or a link to Google Maps makes it art. That's the idea, anyway. Add those things and it's just another blog. Tough call.
posted by zardoz at 3:24 PM on November 16, 2010


No coordinates?
posted by vidur at 3:27 PM on November 16, 2010


Is that the TARDIS?
posted by six-or-six-thirty at 3:29 PM on November 16, 2010


is that a fucking rhinoceros?
posted by nathancaswell at 3:33 PM on November 16, 2010 [1 favorite]


Yes, the lack of information... makes some of those pictures into complete novels in the mind of the viewer. It's brilliant. I really love this. Intriguing doesn't even begin to describe some of the pictures.
posted by hippybear at 3:39 PM on November 16, 2010 [1 favorite]


hippybear: Yes, the lack of information... makes some of those pictures into complete novels in the mind of the viewer.

Thanks for reminding me, I'm in a NaNoWriMo writer's bog, and now I have an out (or 25).
posted by filthy light thief at 3:47 PM on November 16, 2010


The sheer quantity of great images is stunning. This must take up a lot of time.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 3:50 PM on November 16, 2010


These are fantastic, thanks for pointing it out.
posted by longtime_lurker at 3:56 PM on November 16, 2010


Hometown represent!
posted by mazola at 3:56 PM on November 16, 2010


Metafilter: is that a fucking rhinoceros?
posted by Splunge at 3:57 PM on November 16, 2010


Here's a great Google Street View capture that I don't think is on this blog (yet): 94 New Montgomery San Francisco, CA, found by Jason Shellen.
posted by dreamyshade at 4:13 PM on November 16, 2010


Woah... wait a minute. flithy light thief is doing NaNoWriMo and still has managed to churn out these six truly amazing MeFi posts?

Holy shit. Do you EVER sleep?
posted by hippybear at 4:26 PM on November 16, 2010


Those posts are his nanowrimo project, hippybear
posted by flatluigi at 4:34 PM on November 16, 2010 [1 favorite]


I came in here to post buchr.tumblr.com, which is similar though more landscapey, then it turns out that dude is mefite! Love it.

I am skeptical of some of these, too. Would love a link to the spot on Street View.
posted by wemayfreeze at 4:42 PM on November 16, 2010


This is good. Thanks for posting!
posted by carter at 4:52 PM on November 16, 2010


I saw it in ask.metafilter, and considered posting it to the front page. This is an extraordinary site documenting some extraordinary things, and I am very glad that someone is putting it together. It's really amazing to think about -- I think it's just foreshadowing the near near future when this kind of information access/surveillance will be ubiquitous, and these images will no longer seem so far-fetched, strange, or remote.
posted by fake at 5:46 PM on November 16, 2010


is that a fucking rhinoceros?

No, it's one of those Chinese hairless cats.
posted by dobbs at 7:22 PM on November 16, 2010 [1 favorite]


Hey Paulina Meat Market! Howdy Chicago! Lincoln Avenue w00t!
posted by jeanmari at 7:27 PM on November 16, 2010


dng: "I'm slightly afraid that the google street view car is a bit like the shark in Jaws 4 and it's going to track down my entire family and eat them."

If only it were a car...
posted by Rhaomi at 8:07 PM on November 16, 2010 [1 favorite]


I really like the tone and coloration of the Google cam combined with the candid nature of the subject matter.

Does it count as photography if you're deliberately selecting the mindless output of a robot, thereby giving it context?
posted by codacorolla at 8:19 PM on November 16, 2010


It is slightly unsettling that many of those robotically-created pictures are just so perfect, from subject matter to composition. Of course, one can consider that choosing them (and in some case reframing them) is the actual artistic act, and that there are after all only a handful of those in the ocean of mundane Street Views. But still, a robot took those pictures, not a professional photographer, not an amateur photographer, just a machine.
posted by elgilito at 9:17 PM on November 16, 2010 [1 favorite]


I'm waiting for a Google Street car to take a photo of a Google Street car protest, or something else decidedly meta.--Askiba

Well, I think the photo of the three nerdy looking guys in the photo before the billboard with the woman and snake is right about about where the Google headquarters is.
posted by eye of newt at 9:18 PM on November 16, 2010


Ever been in one of those threads where half the people are calling FAKE and the other half a carrying on a conversation as it was real?

Too many unanswered questions before I join the second group, most points touched upon in the above comments. What's a family of gorillas worth on the black market? Where's that roadside fish tank with orcas? The polar bear one looks odd.

But it did make me remember a philosophical question. Are you technically nude if you are still wearing sexy stilettos?
posted by uncanny hengeman at 9:20 PM on November 16, 2010


Well, that's a lot of hookers, car accidents and Segways.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 9:38 PM on November 16, 2010 [2 favorites]


By the way, here's one of the images on Street View. Strangely, if you move up or down the street, the strange man in white disappears.
posted by elgilito at 10:22 PM on November 16, 2010 [1 favorite]


Google must run an automated facial-blurring script. It's interesting that some are blurred and not others. I was wondering why it blurred out some logos and other advertising graphics but left most of them, but then I realized it must be blurring graphics of faces, like this. Apparently it'll blur boobs but not butts.

I recognized one location and found it on google maps, but I still don't know what's going on.
posted by hydrophonic at 10:27 PM on November 16, 2010


The amount of time that must have been spent on Google Street View to find these images makes me both depressed and fascinated.
posted by Termite at 1:57 AM on November 17, 2010


By the way, forget the rhino in a zoo, his top image right now is an elephant, apparently in the wild. Where did Google drive to pick that up?

A depressing amount of prostitutes, as well, including what looks as one sleeping in the street.
posted by Termite at 2:08 AM on November 17, 2010


Well, I can confirm that this one exists for real, although the sign has been painted over now and it's being redeveloped. It's about two streets over from where I live in Edinburgh, Scotland. Odd one actually, it was a private members club of some kind with a massive rainbow flag outside, then I left town for a few years and when I came back it was the burned-out Rod Stewart oddity that it is now.

Independent corroboration here and here.

Pretty amazing blog. I'd love to know where all of these shots were taken. I don't really care that it makes it more arty not to tell me.
posted by Happy Dave at 6:27 AM on November 17, 2010


Well, that's a lot of hookers,

There's a monetization opportunity here that google is missing.
posted by empath at 6:55 AM on November 17, 2010


So if anyone needs directions to me, that's where I am. For eternity.

Not quite eternity - they're updated from time to time. My then 7-month old son could be seen out for a stroller ride with his daycare friends and minders about 2 blocks from our house, but new imagery of the neighborhood replaced it last year.
posted by jalexei at 7:08 AM on November 17, 2010


A better view of the elephant directly on Street View. I guess the author mostly collected images found previously, but it's still a great collection.
posted by elgilito at 7:11 AM on November 17, 2010


I'm partial to shots of birds and squalor.
posted by dgaicun at 7:17 AM on November 17, 2010


I really liked these. Baffled by some of the blurs, though.

Also, I'd sort of like to go to some of these places. Context would be nice.
posted by kinnakeet at 9:13 AM on November 17, 2010


Did the Google Street car/van/whatever just drive right through the zoo?

Very possibly. The Google Streetmobile drove through Euro Disney. Last time I was on Google Earth, you could basically tour Euro Disney in its entirety that way.
posted by AugieAugustus at 9:22 AM on November 17, 2010


A few of those I remember from funny pics culled around the Toronto area when google came through last year.

Skeletor
Oshawa Bus Stop
posted by phirleh at 10:12 AM on November 17, 2010


This one is my new wallpaper

MEANWHILE IN JAPAN
posted by Uther Bentrazor at 11:44 AM on November 17, 2010


Birds and Squalor: they're cops!
posted by AugieAugustus at 1:58 PM on November 17, 2010


I love StreetView as much as I've loved anything technological in a lifetime of geeking out over digital things. I spend more hours cruising around in StreetView than I do gaming, and I run a network of gaming websites, for goodness sakes.

I wish there were links for these, too.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:05 PM on November 17, 2010


Uther Bentrazor: looks like that's at FujiQ Highland, the amusement park near Mt. Fuji. It's the walkway to the Eejanaika, an awesome "4th Dimension" coaster that is known for having the most inversions in the world. The best thrill ride you can get. You can see the support beams and the red track for the coaster in the photo. I didn't know Google Streetview covered amusement parks, but this seems to confirm it.
posted by hampanda at 10:48 PM on November 17, 2010


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