Thursday, October 29, 2009

A Google Maps Based Art Project

Urban Cursor

This Google Maps based art project was designed for the IngrĂ vid festival in Figueres, Catalunya, Spain. The map was created by the same team that created the Danish Google Map art project, Social Souvenir.

The project involved the 'Urban Cursor' a GPS enabled object designed to facilitate social interaction and play in public space. The object, a 3 dimensional oversized computer cursor (pointer), was placed in a square in Figueres. Here, people could touch it, move it around and sit on it as an alternative to the benches.

Via an embedded GPS device, the cursor transmitted its geographic coordinates to a website. At the website, the coordinates were mapped in Google Maps thereby documenting the cursor's movements in the physical world and making it possible for participants to see how they collectively helped moved the object around.

During the festival participants could also upload photos of the cursor at the website. The photos were automatically placed on the map by matching the photo's digital time stamp with the GPS coordinates.

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