Sonic Eraser

Sonic Eraser is a web-based application developed using Processing, designed to let users digitally "scar" the canvas of Google Street View. The project focused on sites like a vacant lot in downtown Buffalo, where a historical building was demolished in 2007, leaving behind an empty grass field. These digital scars symbolically represent the physical and historical scars of such sites—hidden stories and erased histories that remain unseen in the seamless surface of Google Street View.

By allowing users to inscribe their own marks onto this digital canvas, Sonic Eraser transformed Google Street View into a palimpsest—a layered record of memory and interpretation. The project invited audiences to reflect on the absence of historical places and engage with the invisible narratives embedded in contemporary landscapes. Through this interactive process, Sonic Eraser sought to bridge the digital and physical, memory and absence, and presence and erasure.