Runners and Cyclists Use GPS Mapping to Make Art

“It’s not just walking; you’ve got to be looking at this device,” Mr. Pryor said in a recent interview. “People always wonder what you’re doing.”

Mr. Wood said he got the idea for GPS art while he was using a GPS tracker on a flight and the plane flew in a holding pattern above Heathrow Airport. He was captivated by the pattern appearing on his Garmin.

“It formed this most beautiful oval shape, and it was better than I could draw by hand,” Mr. Wood said. “That’s when I made a connection: You could use one’s movements to make marks in space.”

Mr. Pryor, a classmate of Mr. Wood’s, had to develop software to get the GPS points off the Garmin and onto a computer, turning the data into drawings. In the years since, technology has advanced enough to create visual maps in real time using a phone or smart watch.

Steve Lloyd, Strava’s chief product and technology officer, said in an email that increased usage of GPS devices has resulted in more detailed maps, which has improved the quality and complexity of the art.

The practice has spread from the fields of Oxfordshire in England to the sand dunes of Rio Grande do Norte in Brazil. Gustavo Lyra has run around Rio Grande in the image of John Lennon’s face and spent almost nine hours running a route for his daughter’s fifth birthday. It was an image of Elsa from Disney’s “Frozen.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/24/technology/gps-art-strava-running.html