Skip to main content

Artist finds beauty in the Netherlands' Google Maps censorship

Artist finds beauty in the Netherlands' Google Maps censorship

/

Artist Mishka Henner discovers the colorful Dutch censorship techniques and puts together an art book featuring them.

Share this story

Google is sometimes obligated to censor restricted areas like military complexes and sensitive political locations, but the Dutch government has decided to dress the practice up a bit. Instead of masking areas with ambiguous cloud or field textures like Google normally does, the Dutch have used brightly colored abstract pixelations and repeating geometric patterns to mask them.

Edward Moyer of CNET has identified a Dutch artist named Mishka Henner who created a book highlighting the artistic censorship. To see more of these aesthetically pleasing obstructions, be sure to read Moyer's post at the source.