Today is a Good Day is a short residency I did in Regensburg. Using Google Earth’s 3D city simulation map, I roamed around the virtual city from the first point of view and recorded the route and the street scenes blurred or distorted by the AI. I then retraced my steps along the simulated route with a camera and photographed the details of what was happening in the real space.

I didn’t know much about the city of Regensburg. I wanted to ‘get to know’ it in this unknown state, in a virtual networked space. This was realised through Wikipedia, webcam photos, Google Street View, etc. This is in line with what happened during the corona. This is in line with the way people tried to understand the world during corona, or conversely, the epidemic reinforced the status quo of the internet as a modern way of knowing the world. The approach seemed clean and clear, like in Google Earth, I didn’t need the presence of any other visitors, relying on the simulated architectural details in which I already got a sense of Regensburg’s history and current vibrancy. But I knew it was far from the real city. On the other hand, as a tourist, roaming around the real Regensburg for a day, seeing the restored stone bridges, the cathedral with all its scaffolding, the street cafes and so on, is not the same as “getting to know the city”. Both approaches are losing the details of the city.

But it is interesting that the difference between the virtual and the real is confused with some memories and imaginations. For example, this 3D image of an empty street, which was real during the months of the epidemic, is a reminder of the city and its times.