ABSTRACT
The previous chapter’s examination of the visual record of aerial survey in archaeology indicated how encounters with faint and fugitive features intersect with notions of fixity and visual certainty that are expected to underpin documentary projects, and also how the detection of ambiguous traces can open up space for interpretation, the construction of meaning and the reading-in of connections between the past and the lived present. This chapter investigates further the detection and capture of linear traces on the ground surface but within realms of visibility beyond our small optical habitat within the visible-light portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. The visual record in this case involves different technical characteristics but also continuities of visual-cultural expression – new platforms for old eyes, so to speak. Much of that record derives from the capability of instrumentation to extract referents from broader terrestrial contexts, either by sensing variations in thermal and reflective properties via infrared wavelengths, or through terrain response to radar beams. 1 The term “remote sensing” will recur in the discussions ahead and refers to any data-sensing capability using imaging platforms operating at a distance from the object of scrutiny. 2 Although certain ground-based methods qualify, I will be considering it principally in connection with aircraft and orbiting platforms, particularly the latter. 3
