A Spectacular History of Survey by Flying Machine!

Abstract

The origins of archaeological methods are often surprising, revealing unexpected connections between science, art and entertainment. This article explores aerial survey, a visual method commonly represented as distancing or objective. We show how aerial survey's visualizing practices embody subjective notions of vision emerging throughout the nineteenth century. Aerial survey smashes linear perspective, fragments time-space, and places radical doubt at the root of claims to truth. Its techniques involve hallucination, and its affinities are with stop-motion photography and cinema. Exposing the juvenile dementia of aerial survey's infancy releases practitioners and critics from the impulse to defend or demolish its ‘enlightenment’ credentials.