Watch Where You’re Going (040)

Watch Where You’re Going — or, Walking is a Slow Way to Draw — is the first in a three-part “hello” series, which explores the body in space. In this map, a person’s movement is traced at the scale of the city block.

The map is a simple website, a drawing tool, and a historical record, which asks: how does the form of the city shape one’s performance? And how does technology shape the representation of one’s history?

Unlike traditional online mapping services, while in-process this map lacks any context — it is a line on a blank canvas. However, when the map is complete, it is paired with an aerial image and the form of the city which shaped the drawing is made evident. The “hello” written in Sunset Park would look different from a “hello” written in Crown Heights. Is it even possible to write “hello” in the winding neighborhood of Todt Hill in Staten Island?

Also, walking is a slow way to draw. It took 45 minutes to write “hello” and technology (GPS accuracy) limited the body’s fidelity as a drawing instrument. Or, put another way, the technology defined the scale at which the body could draw.

Technicals

The on-screen drawing is achieved with P5.js, where geographic coordinates are mapped to the screen extent.

Next Steps

• Automatically resize the canvas size and adjust the scale as a user moves close to the edge of the screen.
• Adjust the projection of the geographic coordinates rather than using only the map() function.