Everywhere I go I make it a point to look at where I am from above on Google Earth so that I can see my surroundings. One never knows if there is a nearby neighbor with a kidney shaped pool that can be secretly drained when they are away on vacation, and furtively used for the purpose of skateboarding. The Google technology that allows one to zoom in and out reminds me of two films that incorporate zooming into their structure –
A Rough Sketch for a Proposed Film Dealing with the Powers of Ten and the Relative Size of Things in the Universe made in 1968 by Charles and Ray Eames and
Cosmic Zoom made in the same year by Eva Szasz.
From the vantage point of 2-32-10 Takinogawa, Kita-ku, The National Film Board of Canada presenting eight minutes of film in
Cosmic Zoom of a boy rowing, a mosquito, his dog, and a blood cell, along with the Eames' eight minutes focusing on a picnic all seems like some far away experiment. Still, genuine connections and linkages exist. They are on a river and I am near a river. I have no dog, but I was born in 1968. I like picnics and I also like rough sketching without the requirement of crafting a final, honed something. However, neither film hints at the possibility of a kidney shaped pool.
