A New Perspective

I found some this week’s reading to be one of the most interesting topics we have read about so far. To start off, I found it interesting that the development of the plane and aerial photography arose during World War 1, which dramatically changed the way we see the land and the nation as well as contributing to the advancement of warfare tactics. Then, in Thomas Campanella’s “Sherman M. Fairchild & the Airborne Camera”, it was weird to think that this new invention caused such a difference in the lives of Americans. For example, his ability to improve aerial photography led people to gain knowledge “about potential factory sites, port facilities, and traffic conditions. They also revealed hundreds of buildings that had for years evaded taxation” (Edward Polley 1951). Fairchild’s determination and hard work caused people to now be able to view landscapes and cities from above (not limited to the United States) and be able to see literally everything that went on, something never before even heard of. Just as the quote explains, now it was a lot easier to be able to tax more people and properties because there was an “overseeing eye”, so to say. Another thing I found extremely interesting was the emergence of Superman, Buck Rogers, and Flash Gordon mentioned in “The Aesthetics of Ascension in Norman Bel Geddes’s Futurama” by Adnan Morshed. I had no idea that these figures were related to history and therefore found it quite funny that these iconic characters emerged at the time when flying and viewing landscapes from above had become such a great deal and an envious ability.