The panoramic views of the Danube, shown here in sections near the Iron Gate, give an impression of timelessness as they present several moments along the river, seemingly all at once.

Imagine being able to experience the whole river in one glance, without borders. Landscapes changing and morphing as the river remains constant; flowing, ever flowing, to the Black Sea.

Artist Michael Aschauer has created this image of the river, mapping nearly 1000 kilometres, in pieces from Asten, Austria to the Black Sea. His Danube Panorama Project, which won the 2011 Neptun Wasserpreis, examines how cultural diversity is reflected visually in landscapes.

"It's a long-established metaphor: the river as a flow of life, and of history," says Aschauer. "Especially important for me with this project is the idea of rivers as a naturally given crosslink through continents or cultures and as a representation of a cultural landscape."

A flowing river, one frame at a time. The unique images are captured with a line-scan camera, which takes exposures through a slit in the aperture. The camera was placed on a boat going down the river, continuously recording the shoreline. Using software he developed, Aschauer has created a single image from the footage.

Recording the first stages took place in July and November 2005 as part of a river cruise from the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. "I came up with this ambitious idea to make a very long panoramic picture of the whole Danube River – which of course turned out to be not that easy to do in one trip on a tourist cruise ship."

Since then Aschauer has been slowly working on upgrading the technology to make higher resolution scans, and finding time to expand his coverage of the river. "Basically I'm doing everything myself, so it takes a lot of time."

But for Aschauer, the project is like the river in many ways, especially in its continuation. "It's not a full track – a fragment here and a hundred kilometres there, sometimes in one direction and sometimes in the other direction. But it's not the main point to seek completeness," he says.

Taking in the bigger picture. Aschauer's work, like the river itself, has proved to be a gathering point for people from many walks of life. "For me it's an art project but it's not tied to the artistic scene; there are a lot of people that can make something out of these pictures that do not have any connection to art."

He has expanded this work into a larger umbrella project, called River Studies, and plans to make similar recordings of the world's other large rivers. "I'm interested in rivers generally, and I'm also interested in comparing rivers."

Aschauer made some recordings on the Nile in Egypt in 2006 and is planning to record some sections of the Ganges in India by this winter. Through his work, we'll be able to compare the world's rivers with our own Danube.

For more information about the Danube Panorama Project or to see more of Aschauer's work, visit: www.danubepanorama.net.

Kirstie Shepherd is a freelance journalist living in Vienna and has called the Danube River Basin home since 2000.