Review of Jon Rafman's Nine Eyes of Google Street View

Jon Rafman’s Nine Eyes of Google Street View

Jon Rafman roams Google Street View like a contemporary Robert Frank, discovering in street photos a rich narrative of life around the world. Nine Eyes of Google Street View snatches screenshots of Irish toughs flipping off the camera and of a naked woman standing on an Italian beach, personalizing Google’s allseeing eye. By emblazoning the Street View navigational tool and Google’s logo on each print, the Montreal-based artist nods to the images’ coproducer. Yet he also reminds us that we can use this tool for purposes other than Google’s.

Many new-media works look outdated fast. Rafman’s work is much more substantive: He’s the rare digital native who’s cognizant of the artist’s role in the world and of art history. Though his experiments involve the latest technology and Web trends, such as crowdsourcing and viral memes, his attempt to celebrate and humanize digital media has staying power. Adept at making machinima (videos shot in virtual worlds), Rafman created Woods of Arcady in Second Life, linking pastoral scenes of real-life ancient statues and monuments that have been transformed into rudimentary virtual 3-D models. A Yeats poem lamenting the end of the classical era and the beginning of the modern narrates the piece, ironically, given that modern technology made this digital arcadia attainable. It’s a shame that Golden Age’s tiny quarters require Rafman’s work to be sandwiched between bookshelves and hung in a hallway. But this solo show breathes life into so many different aspects of online culture it could speak for a wide swath of new-media artists.

Published by Time Out Chicago.