Article ID: CBB726932342

Computing views, remodeling environments (April 2022)

unapi

This article traces the development and expansion of early computer systems for analyzing views at three state-owned agencies in the United States and Great Britain: the US Forest Service, the Central Electricity Generating Board of England and Wales, and the Greater London Authority. Following the technology over four decades, from 1968 to 2012, the article traces assumptions incorporated into initial programs and propagated through to the present. These programs were designed to address questions about visual environments and proximities by numerical calculations alone, without the need for field observations. Each historical episode provides unique insights into the role of abstraction and calculation in the production of landscapes and the built environment, and shows how computer-generated view data became an important currency in planning control, not primarily for aesthetic but for financial and political reasons.

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Authors & Contributors
Lav R. Varshney
Berlin, Leslie
Fitsanakis, Joseph
Franco Zambonelli
Ward, Jacob
Sastre Juan, Jaume
Concepts
Computers and computing
Technology and government
Case studies
Information technology
Urban planning
Communication technology
Time Periods
20th century
21st century
19th century
20th century, late
18th century
Places
Great Britain
United States
Wales
Europe
Bletchley Park
Tahrir Square
Institutions
Twitter (firm)
United States. National Security Agency
American Telephone and Telegraph Company
National Health Service (Great Britain)
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