A Canadian artist living in New York, Ross Racine creates these beautifully graphic images that you might mistake for architectural models made by  an urban planner on acid. In fact, these images are digitally drawn from scratch and printed on an injket printer. The subjects of his work, most often interpreted as models for planned communities or as aerial views of fictional suburbs, referring to the dual role of the computer as a tool for urban planning as well as image capture.

On his website he explains the process of making the images, both technically and conceptually:

Drawn freehand directly on a computer and printed on an inkjet printer, my works do not contain photographs or scanned material.

Examining the relation between design and actual lived experience, the works subvert the apparent rationality of urban design, exposing conflicts that lurk beneath the surface. Beyond the suburban example, these digital drawings are a way of thinking about design, the city and society as a whole.

We find particularly interesting how his images address a variety of concepts so closely tied to the contemporary built environment, including the ubiquity of satellite imagery and the feeling of being watched, our growing familiarity with aerial viewpoints, and of course, the issue of sprawling suburbia. In a recent interview, Racine suggests that it is not so much about being watched as it is about watching; the viewer as the all-seeing observer, the decision-maker. Something that only becomes evident in front of an actual 24 x 32″ print, where the viewer can examine the details within each “property”, making the experience almost like eavesdropping. He summarizes his work like this:

There is an obvious criticism of suburbia in my images, mainly through the exaggeration of certain of its characteristics. The suburbs are the fastest growing part of the urban environment in the majority of nations. But beyond the suburban example, these digital drawings are a way of thinking about design, the city and society as a whole. I would like my prints to remain as open as possible, to be triggers for reflection through analogy with various aspects of the world.

Many of his images feature allusions to iconic artworks or distinctive graphic forms, perhaps speaking of the excessive emphasis on form in the shaping of modern cities, or the growing surge of cookie-cutter communities as suburban environments.

See more of Ross Racine's pop-up fictional suburbs at his website.