ABSTRACT

This chapter describes the ideas behind a height sensitive project and investigates how an abstract system of referencing, geo-location, may contribute to learning through direct experience. The concept for Citizen Cartographer project was to track the seven-meter-high contour on the north and south banks of the river to visualize which locations would be flooded should the Thames rise to this level. Audio narrations from interviews with people along the way provided a GPS-tagged soundtrack for the contour line. This audio was then added to by delegates at a climate change event at the Greater London Authority (GLA) building in London, who recorded and plotted narrations at locations of significance to them. In the urban planning process, vantage points are used to create predominantly horizontal photographic montages of "objective" verifiable views concerning locations for tall buildings or structures. Knowledge produced in making these vertical excursions is part of the wider histories of urban vantage points and cultures of viewing for pleasure.