How was this map made? The lines seem so unsteady…
Here’s a hint:
What do those lines represent? What do these two maps have in common? Solution (and source) in a week.
Comments may contain spoilers.
Here is a link to the mystery map revealed.
5 comments
HD says:
Sep 28, 2010
Giant IRL etch-a-sketch!
Some sort of tracking, with the tracked object trying to cover spaces evenly,
I would say a motorised lawnmower, or some other landscaping device.
The compass rose besides the soccer field is a real give away to the scale
Alexander Chaucer says:
Oct 4, 2010
@HD @Ben Begley Etch-a-sketch map is a great guess! I did find some Etch-a-sketch maps online. See the US here and Africa here. As far as a motorized lawnmower, another great guess. Here are related motorized vehicle tracking projects by Jeremy Wood, one on motorized lawnmowing here and another on field line painting here.
Chris says:
Sep 28, 2010
The lines are GPS created lines. The top one looks like it was some it was walked with a handheld or or other submeter type unit. The bottom map is a mobile unit in a vehicle. both were probably created with the same GPS unit and one was code corrected and the other maybe carrier phase corrected.
Cool maps.
Ben Begley says:
Sep 28, 2010
The first one looks like Etch-A-Sketch, but that wouldn’t account for the second one. First one: person walking with a GPS device that was drawing lines as they moved; second one: same thing while driving.
The Geography of the Creative Thinking | on location says:
Jan 10, 2013
[...] Have you ever considered a GPS as a tool for creative expression? Most hiking GPS units have a feature called tracking, akin to Hansel and Gretel and their breadcrumbs, which records your digital location as a series of points as you walk around. This points can be connected to form lines. Now, your GPS can be considered to be a digital pen used for writing on the earth! One of the earliest online examples of this was at Jeremy Wood’s website, GPS Drawing. You can see many examples of this work in his gallery here. You can find Jeremy Wood online on Twitter here. Hmm…Denis Wood and Jeremy Wood, I wonder if there is a relation… We have used some of his “drawings” as mystery maps in the past here. [...]