Look, What the Birds See

After listening to a recording of Darius Milhaud's Le Bouef sur le Toit (1920), I began to think about what the birds see when they fly overhead. We take the roofs over our heads for granted, except when they leak, and like so many ordinary things, they become invisible to us.
In his book Outside Lies Magic: Regaining History and Awareness in Everyday Places (1997), landscape historian John R. Stilgoe prods the reader to look with the mind as well as the eyes. There is geometry in the air above our heads: planes, angles, and triangles. Here are examples of how things look to humans who try to imagine a bird's eye view. How it actually appears to a bird is more subtle - most birds have one eye on each side of the head and see things differently from even the most imaginative artist. Who knows, you might even see a bull on the roof.

Images:
1. Carl Blecher View of Roofs and Gardens, between 1798-1844, National Gallery, Berlin.
2. Edouard Vuillard - The Red Roofs, c. 1889, Bellier Gallery, Paris.
3. Alvin Langdon Coburn - Gabled Roof, 1904.
5. Henri Riviere - On the Roofs, from 36 Views of the Eiffel Tower, 1900, Musee D'Orsay, Paris.
6. Bernard Boutet de Monvel, View of Nemours, before 1949, Chateau-Museum, Nemours, France.
7. Georges Tatge - View of the Countryside in the valley of Elsa near Certaldo, 1992, Alinari Archive, Florence, Italy.

Also, for more information about Darius Milhaud and Le Bouef sur le Toit, read "How the Bull Got on the Roof" at Musica Brasilieras (see Music links section).