Drive By

Moving across spaces quickly, observing the world through windows as if watching a screen can both remove us from the moment and the rest of humanity, and help create a wider understanding of the places we’ve been. Americans, in particular, spend an inordinate amount of time viewing the world from cars; we each spend about 18 full days a year in a car, traveling an average of nearly 12,000 miles. While many of us (including I) decry these habits from environmental, social, and time perspectives, one can also find a lot of value and beauty in exploring the world through different conveyances, cars included.

I’ve gone on road trips from an early age, which cemented in me the feeling of seeing constant snapshots of the world through a squarish window. Being driven through new places still feels both exciting and disjointed, as if I’m both watching a movie and altering the human landscape in real time; both are true. As a Western scientist working in Africa, I have also experienced the sensation of observing and colonizing a space in which I do not belong, albeit at 15-70 miles per hour. 

This ongoing Drive By series is the visual, linear sampling of different environments from the passenger seat of a vehicle. It’s an exploration of what it means to very temporarily occupy a space as a voyeur and short-term settler, measuring tangents on the circle of colonization.