Prepare to be totally enamoured with WindowSwap

WORDS Mia Steiber PUBLISHED Fri, 14 Aug 2020 - 11:01 am

Even if you have a wonderful view, looking out the same window each day can grow rather tiresome.

We humans need a change of scenery to stay motivated and stimulated. But with so many of us still living in lockdown conditions or self-isolating for safety, that change of scenery is hard to come by.

It's probably the reason why I've developed a borderline obsession with WindowSwap.

WindowSwap is a site that gives you a virtual view through someone else's window. People around the world point their phones or webcams to their windows, and this site gives you the ability to connect and watch.

Open the site here and you'll see what I mean, a view into another part of the world. You might see a farm in Brazil, a cityscape from New York or the scene from a house boat in Hong Kong. A button at the bottom of the site allows you to swap again, and you're automatically transported to a new view at random.

I've spent hours leisurely scrolling through the scenes on this magical website. I usually stop and pause whenever I reach something from Singapore. I lived there as a kid, so the views of the tall apartment buildings nestled among the jungle greenery of this city is a therapeutic and soothing view. Many window views come with sound, so I've been treated to the sounds of summery buzzing and the chirping of Singaporean birds for most of my morning. Quite frankly, it's been delightful.

Singapore

As I was scrolling through last night, I watched and listened to chickens pecking in a Brazilia backyard, I listened to the rain pour down in sheets from a loft in Detriot, I saw a tree blowing in the wind outside a sunny apartment in Lisbon.

This beautiful platform was created by Sonali Ranjit and Vaishnav Balasubramaniam, two creatives living in Singapore. After a few weeks living in Singapore's strict isolation conditions, the wife-and-husband duo developed their idea for this project. They invited people to share 5-10 minute videos out of their windows, allowing someone from somewhere else in the world to see what they see.

You can still submit your own window view if you wish to contribute to this project and share your view with others around the world. It's not live of course, that would be a bit weird. It's a prerecord so you can control what others see.

Take a look at some of the views you can see below.