Visual imagery and the informal city: examining 360-degree imaging technologies for informal settlement representation

ABSTRACT

Informal settlements are a feature of many cities worldwide, yet information about their social and spatial conditions is often limited to what can be obtained from external observation. Remote sensing and landscape photography are used to acquire information about informal settlements, but images taken from the air or at a distance obscure their complexity, advancing a reductionist imaginary of informality in the minds of outsiders. As part of a project in an informal settlement in Johannesburg, this paper explores the potential of 360-degree imagery as a realist form of spatial representation, towards highlighting the diverse spatial forms, contexts, and lived realities of the informal city. Findings demonstrate the benefits of 360-degree imagery in comparison to other spatial and visual representation methods. Findings also reveal the need for more research into the impacts of this technology on viewer perspectives and perceptions, both visual-cognitive and in terms of intersubjectivity and power relations.

KEYWORDS:

• Informal settlements
• visual methods
• visual imagery
• virtual
• 360
• panoramic

Acknowledgements

An earlier version of this paper was published as a working paper for the ‘Urban Data, Inequality and Justice in the Global South’ research program, funded by the University of Manchester’s Sustainable Consumption Institute with additional financial support from Canada’s International Development Research Centre, with the title: ‘Visual Data Justice? Datafication of Urban Informality in South Africa using 360° Imaging Technologies’. A portion of the research was conducted during the author’s visiting fellowship at Wits University, which was funded by the South African National Research Foundation. Thank you to the journal editors and reviewers, to Lindi Jahiu for research assistance, and to research participants and residents of Kya Sands.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 This web-based 360-degree virtual tour platform is no longer active.