From a Bird’s Flight to an Overlooking Gaze: Virtuality as a Method

Abstract

Objects, concepts, and images are only fully understood when contextualized in their temporal and interpretative dimensions. As a method, Montage includes its disassembly, revealing the intrinsic complexity of objects and images. This article proposes the exercise of a dialectical triad (assembly-disassembly-reassembly), where images and meanings are constantly reinterpreted when mobilized to inform the realities of the Global South. With the massification of digital platforms such as Google Street View, there has been a transformation in collecting and interpreting images, facilitating new interactions and appropriations based on the generalization of phenomena. This article presents a research methodology based on virtuality, using Street View to analyze self-constructed layers — the Puxadinhos (pronounced poo-sha-dee-nyos, these are self-built housing extensions, done mainly without any permits) — in housing complexes, identifying a movement when we connect the Aerial View to the First-person View in the face of the participant gaze in the territories. The collection of images of housing complexes in several Brazilian and Latin American cities highlights the presence of self-built layers, challenging the hegemonic view of the housing complex as a complete solution and demonstrating a generalization of self-construction in countries of the Global South. The incorporation of technologies is advocated to broaden the understanding of territories, emphasizing the need to observe the city based on the everyday images that technology generates, which continue to be capitalized but do not override the need to keep a physical presence in the territories.