Before embarking on our trip to Dartmoor, we felt it was important to further understand the world of connectivity before venturing off to a place without it. So what better place to do that than the city right on our doorstep? We went to central London to photograph all the distant aspects of connectivity we could find to get an idea of the impact that it has on our society.
Transport
London is full of different modes of public transport, keeping the city connected 24 hours a day. Everyone in the city is dependent on it to get from point A to point B, making it one of the most key factors of connectivity.
Maps
Navigation is one of the most important methods of connectivity. While maps have been around for thousands of years, they have more recently been mediated for digital use in apps such as Citymapper, which tracks your location and calculates the quickest routes to get anywhere within London. It renders getting lost in London an almost impossible concept.
CCTV
Most parts of London are constantly under a lens. Surveillance is everywhere, and acts as a more dystopian form of connection. One of the aims of our camping trip to Dartmoor is to find a place that’s ‘off the grid’: a journey to escape the eyes that surround us in the city.
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi is of course another key factor of connectivity. For this day, we wanted to also use a 360 camera to get a variety of shots, but we couldn’t get it working as there was an issue with the app that was preventing it connecting to the phone via Wi-Fi.
Traffic lights
Traffic lights control the flow of traffic and pedestrians, therefore controlling the connectivity.
The BBC
The BBC centre is a hub for connectivity in London, in charge of broadcasting TV and radio productions to the entire country.
British Telecom
The main destination of our search for connectivity was the BT tower, a building that acts as a symbol for connectivity in London. The building is a dominant feature on the city skyline and is the headquarters for the largest provider of fixed-line, broadband and mobile services in the UK. The stark infrastructure of the communications tower is particularly visible from up close, making it appear almost menacing. Looking up at its enormous stature is a reminder of the power that connectivity has over the city.
Through this photography series, we’ve gained evidence of how much impact connectivity has upon the city and hope to make some contrasting comparisons to these themes when we go to Dartmoor.
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