Abstract
This paper centers on the use of technical images such as aerial photography, google maps overlays, technical drawings, to produce inaccurate accounts of the reality being portrayed. The study results of my doctoral thesis on a railway infrastructure project that will intersect an area of major environmental and social interest in Brazil. It will serve the mining industry and agribusiness. Part of the area being affected is environmentally protected and of small rural properties. The project followed the required steps into producing socio-environmental reports. While these reports seem relatively forthcoming, and approved by local agencies, the negative potential impacts are perceived. Having elaborated reports in the architecture infrastructure field, this coordinated perspective can be applied, hence distinguishing how images are aides to the construction of a discourse. The cited required reports images, and how they are pieced together in the documents, are the basis of this work. Complementarily, they are compared to other images generated to picture the same area in question, and relating them to different possible outcomes in this analysis. This work will demonstrate how these documents inadvertently (or purposely) show an undercurrent communication conducted through the specific choice and order of images. While the images are individually correct, together they are not necessarily right. This research aims to bring the issue to the forefront, and be part of a mechanism that restores the ability to elaborate more accurate reports.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2023 Special Focus—Images Do Not Represent Us, They Create Us: The Image and its Transforming Power
KEYWORDS
Image, Infrastructure, Planning, Railways, Urban Design, Technical Reports
