Another common answer is to fly, like a bird, a plane or a superhero. Not only is it a lot faster than walking, being airborne means that the world below becomes greatly diminished. The details are blurry, almost nonexistent, making the whole far greater than the individual parts. 

Underpinning this human desire to see things differently is the urge to question our own perspective. Psychologically speaking, we are slaves to confirmation bias - seeking out that which confirms our already formed belief systems and outlooks. That doesn’t stop us from challenging our surface systems though. 

Seeing the world from up high means that we can clutch safely onto the pearls of our infinite wisdom, whilst dipping our toes into a liminal shift. The fact that flying is mainly fantasy - unless you’ve got the bottle for a skydive - gives the birdseye desire all the makings of a perfect fantasy.

Luckily for those of us with Instagram - which is almost everybody that will be reading this - it is very much possible to see the world from way up high, thanks largely to the perpetually improving abilities of drone photography. If you’re still reading this and wondering where to find it - look no further than the @dailyoverview instagram page which offers exactly what it promises to: a new aerial shot every day.

Probably nowhere on the internet are you better able to grasp the immensity of Planet Earth than on this page. It highlights the breathtaking natural beauty, but also the impact of our built environment on the world. Daily Overview is as objective as a reportage/documentary page can be, effortlessly and perhaps inadvertently becoming a leading activist force in highlighting the need of a global preservation effort. 

The ingenuity of agriculture in some of the world’s poorest areas is juxtaposed next to the preceding image capturing the hubris and vulgarity of artificial islands designed for the rich and famous. Without saying anything more than the location, a little bit of background information and the source photographer - Daily Overview is able to make us prise apart our own ideas of how the planet is and can be.

Making fantasy become reality, this Instagram page with a little over one million followers - has the same impact as a David Attenborough documentary, without even requiring any of the iconic presenter’s silky voiceover talents. It is pure visual poetry - the planet talking on our behalf. What is it saying? That varies, from picture-to-picture and day-to-day. Most importantly, its varietal beauty comes from what is says from person-to-person.