Fly a giant balloon
For E88 Critical Making, we embarked on the balloon mapping unit. Balloon mapping is a grassroots technique for gathering aerial photographs. Examples of uses might be for mapping refugee camps which are often grayed out of maps for the general public, or for gathering images documenting the extent of oil spills. We had a guest lecturer who is working closely with Public Lab, a DIY citizen science collaboration, with balloon mapping.
The class was split into small teams to different segments of the LA river to do our own aerial photography. We picked up the helium tanks from one of the campus buildings, checked out the balloon kit and GoPro from the library and were ready to go. Our team was in charge of the southern Elysian valley area. To be frank, this part of the LA river isn’t exactly picturesque; it’s a concrete channel flowing with murky water. We also couldn’t get close to water since it was sandwiched by railroads and industrial areas, and the trail next to it looked completely lined with trees, which we knew were going to be quite the menace to our poor balloon.
