Bird's Eye View and Balloons

When I read Alex Krieger’s “As Though In Flight”, I was struck by the notion that people had to adjust to looking at an image from an elevated viewpoint. Since I grew up in a time where bird’s eye view was common, I had never though of how unconventional it was when it originated. With the bird’s eye view, the people could see their town and be able to pick out their house. For me, I do not think that’s a big deal because I’ve been able to do that with Google Maps. This reading made me understand that you have to understand the context of the time period while you are reading to fully understand how amazing the innovations were at the time. Similar to the bird’s eye view, was the invention of the balloon. With the popularization and fascination with the balloon, came the idea of photographing the earth from a high elevation. The viewpoint from the balloon was an aerial shot, looking directly down onto the city. Once again I was forced to look at this reading as if I had never seen an aerial photograph to experience the shrillness of looking at just the tops of buildings and streets. These two readings made me address the whole class with a different perspective. I have to realize the time period and context of the readings before I read or make assumptions about the readings.