When new technologies arrive on the scene, it’s always uncertain how artists might use them – if at all.

I mean, hey, lots of creatives are still getting mileage out of ye olde paint brush and canvas. And even what we might call analog arts – sculpture, drawing, traditional photo – can take years to master. If a tech trend gun is jumped too soon, the resulting art often risks looking amateurish.

Now, Gallery 44 exhibits work by two artists attempting to use a relatively new tech toy – Google Earth – to artistic ends.

John van der Woude’s prints make up the more successful body of work here. Using satellite images gleaned from Google Earth, van der Woude stitches together some incredible aerial views of the world’s busiest airports.

These slick, glossy, detailed images, while fun to look at for a long time, also provide many conceptual points of departure: How does the lightness of global, go-anywhere mobility get played out and bound up at ground level? Who can really fathom the dense intersections of individual stories and trajectories that happen in these places, let alone design for them?

Why do some of these airport designs themselves evoke hovering motherships, complete with hubs, ports and curious, reaching tentacles? And in an age of X-ray airport security, isn’t it a bit surprising that such detailed surveillance imagery is freely available online?

Eryn Foster’s video based on satellite imagery is, unfortunately, much less compelling. This colourful, stilted, abstract animation mainly comes off as cryptic and psychedelic – and not in a way that lends itself to viewer engagement. Maybe this is meant to be a critical counterpoint to the hypnotic, swooping digital views of Google Earth itself. But it needs some serious tweaking to make that statement effectively.

art@nowtoronto.com