Drawing with GPS
![Joseph Wilk d[-_-]b](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fill:88:88/1*7cR8ubhplc1LLPyyArrdHA.jpeg){kind=small}
Exploring forms of drawing or discovery of drawing through movement and GPS tracking. Part of my research for the project “Wheel trails”, exploring digital street art created through the motion of wheel based mobility.
GPS Sketching
Running and cycle tracking apps have created a niche trend of using the GPS route tracking system to create drawings usually with some pre-planning on what route to take.
The resolution of the drawing is clearly related to the distance you can travel. So we see more complicate and detailed drawings created through bikes or car tracking.
Giraffe: Distance: 95.5 km, Time: 3:30mins
The worlds largest GPS based drawing was created by Yasushi “Yassan” Takahashi. It took 6 months to make and is 7,000 km covering Japan with the text “Marry me”.
Some interesting abstract sketches created by GPS artist Nathan Rae (https://www.facebook.com/NathanRaeGPS):
Discovery of sketches through trails
The “Trace” app by the University of Washington converts sketches to GPS routes. You can create a drawing, convert it to a GPS route and then share it with a friend who walks the route. They progressively have the drawing revealed to them as they follow the trail. It is possible to attach audio recordings or messages that occur at various points in the journey.
This provides a unique way of slowly uncovering drawings through motion.
https://depts.washington.edu/tatlab/trace
Connecting location and sketch
Most GPS drawings are doodles that don’t reflect on the location they are situated in. An example of connecting place and drawing is Nathan Rae’s GPS drawing in Manchester which was created to commemorate the victims of the Manchester Arena bombing. Nathan created this using his Garmin GPS watch and phone.
https://www.facebook.com/NathanRaeGPS
Connecting drawing surface and sketch
In GPS art we are not just drawing on maps, we are drawing on the surface of the Earth. Which means a drawing on one face will match to another face on the other-side of the planet.
Simon Faithful’s project Antipodes creates a GPS trail recreating an island outline on the exact opposite side of the Earth. Uniquely in this piece the chosen route had obstacles to overcome, with the artist carrying a ladder to scale walls and buildings.
https://www.simonfaithfull.org/works/antipodes/
Focusing on the surface
“0 Navigation” is a project by Simon Faithfull which traces the 0° line of longitude across the planet. The sketch, a straight line is less interesting than the surfaces and landscapes of the earth that line covers.
The experience of drawing
Drawing on maps would be possible without any movement or recording. Hence there is a meaning conveyed by knowing the person was physically in these spaces and the imperfections of the tracking and their movement.
Meridians is a project by Jeremy Wood where he captured his experiences creating the piece. He drew a quote by walking through London:
“It is not down in any map; true places never are.”
Jeremy documented the process of recording the drawing, sharing interactions and descriptions of the space he was drawing in. Reflecting on the words written and their location.
The writing was initially steadied by the markings of a soccer pitch but loosened into having to claim more ground through bramble bushes. The trail leads to ‘NOT’, written partly in a public park and partly in a school playing field. I headed towards to the word ‘DOWN’ which was written in a cemetery.
http://www.gpsdrawing.com/gallery/land/meridians.html
Community drawing
Collaborative attempts to draw by following routes using different means of travel. Nicely highlights the noise of GPS based work while showing the effort and work of many individuals. This piece was created by Nathan Rae and collaborators to celebrate the NHS in the UK.
Drawing as performance
The band “Ok Go“ turned the drawing exercise into a collaborative, 8 mile musical parade spelling the name “OK Go” in giant letters across LA city.
Live collaborative drawing
“A Heart from Space” is a project by Jonathan Chomko (https://jonathanchomko.com). It relies on a group of people visiting a website on their mobile devices. The website then draws lines between each GPS position of the people. In this way it’s a live collaboration to draw, with each individual controlling a part of the shape.
https://www.a-heart-from-space.com
Drawing through disruption
Simon Weckert and Moritz Ahlert project “Google Maps Hacks” was a live performance which drew on Google maps via creating red zones of traffic congestion. This was not an explicit drawing act, but a form of live drawing by manipulating an existing mapping system. They walked with a trolley full of mobile phones around the streets of Berlin to manipulate Google maps which treats lots of phones close together as a sign of bad traffic. People using Google maps for directions would be routed to avoid these faked traffic hotspots.
http://www.simonweckert.com/googlemapshacks.html
Motion style based drawing
The Nike “Paint with your feet” project used the GPS tracking of a runner’s route combined with running features (speed, consistency and style) to export unique visualisations of their run. So two identical GPS trails might look different based on the style of movement. It’s interesting this project steps away from the map aesthetic, and starts to look more like data visualisation. What’s left is something more abstract that still carries the meaning of the GPS data.
Created by http://www.yesyesno.com and https://dualforces.com
Passive drawing
Most drawing attempts occur over short periods of time. Jeremy Wood created a collection of routes, not explicitly drawing but collecting all journeys for 15 years (http://www.gpsdrawing.com/maps.html). Creating what he refers to as:
a form of personal cartography that documents my life as visual journal.
Edition of 10, available from TAG Fine Arts
Hidden trails revealed
GPS trails from multiple cats exploring the journeys they take during the night. A project by the Central Tablelands Local Land Services in Australia.
This is a lovely example of revealing trails hidden in plain sight in space we are familiar with.
https://mashable.com/2016/05/26/cat-roam-maps/?europe=true
Experiencing routes through first person perspective
Line of sight is a project by Justin Blinder (https://justin.work/) that takes other people’s GPS routes and stitches them together with Google Streetview images to create a video of motion following the routes.
This is a different way to experience a GPS route, its less about explicit drawing and more about re-creating the experience of someone’s personal journey.
https://justin.work/#/line-of-sight
Burbing
Rather than creating a sketch “Burbing” (https://burbing.net) tries to cover every street in a suburb. As an experience it’s about discovering new locations in familiar places.
Jeremy Wood created a similar “burbing” project with the Warwick University campus. Creating a 1:1 scale map drawn through 238 miles of GPS tracks walked over 17 days. Here he tried when possible to avoid walking along roads or paths.
http://www.gpsdrawing.com/maps/traverse-me.html
Further Links
Further Reading
Walking and Mapping, Artists as Cartographers: https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/walking-and-mapping
(Thanks to Zach Lieberman for the recommendation)
Support
Commissioned and supported by Unlimited, celebrating the work of disabled artists, with funding from SouthBank Centre and Arts Council England.
Thanks to everyone who helped contributed links and projects for this post.
![Joseph Wilk d[-_-]b](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fill:96:96/1*7cR8ubhplc1LLPyyArrdHA.jpeg){kind=small}
![Joseph Wilk d[-_-]b](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fill:128:128/1*7cR8ubhplc1LLPyyArrdHA.jpeg)