ALL THAT REMAINS

‘All That Remains’ is an ongoing digital-mapping project examining the shifting virtual presence of Grenfell Tower as it appears—and gradually disappears—within Google Earth’s 3D and historical imagery systems.

For seven years after the 2017 fire that claimed 72 lives, Grenfell Tower remained wrapped in white sheeting: a physical veil of mourning, protection, and unresolved justice. Today, as the structure is dismantled, its digital counterpart persists inside Google Earth as a kind of spectral architecture—updated irregularly, fragmented across time, and visible only through the platform’s incomplete and shifting data layers.

Using Google Earth Pro, I navigate, record, and log a series of fixed camera viewpoints around the site. Each screenshot is captured together with its metadata: imagery date, altitude, orientation, and contextual conditions. This method treats digital cartography as a form of ‘virtual witness’, revealing the tower’s presence not only as a geographical coordinate but also as a temporal and emotional trace.

The images presented here are drawn directly from this process: incomplete renders, stitched satellite textures, 3D artefacts, blank update zones, and disappearing architectural forms. Together they form a digital memorial—a record of how trauma, memory, and loss persist in virtual space long after the physical structure has gone.

This project sits at the intersection of hauntology, digital archaeology, and documentary mapping. It asks:

What does it mean for a tragedy to remain visible in data after it is removed from the ground? What responsibilities do digital platforms hold as custodians of collective memory? And how might artists work with virtual ruins as sites of both mourning and resistance?

As the Google Earth model continues to update, further images will be added—forming a longitudinal record of disappearance, erasure, and the uneasy afterlife of Grenfell in the global mapping imagination.

For those living around the estate, the demolition brings renewed grief, uncertainty, and practical challenges—noise, dust, and daily disruption—but also complex emotions tied to memory, visibility, and the unresolved questions that still surround the tragedy. As the physical tower disappears from the skyline, many worry that public attention and institutional responsibility may also fade, even though the search for justice still carries on, driven by survivors, bereaved families, and supporters who refuse to let the lessons of Grenfell be forgotten.

This project does not attempt to speak on behalf of the community, but to acknowledge that the removal of the structure is not the end of the story. The effects of Grenfell—material, emotional, social, and political—remain very much alive, and the demand for justice continues as powerfully as ever.