GPS Artist – Part Athlete & Artist
7 Feb 2012You’ve heard about people (or as some would believe, aliens) creating patterns out of cornfield mazes, haven’t you? Well now there’s a high-tech twist on this creative past time. It’s called GPS riding art. And those who do it are called GPS artists.
Michael “Wally” Wallace, a 39-year old middle school science teacher, is by all accounts one of these people — a GPS artist. He turns maps of his city into art, tracing pictures of his journeys around the city by using GPS technology, his bicycle, and Google Maps.
Instead of using a painter’s palate, the streets of Baltimore, Maryland are Michael’s canvas. And Michael’s instrument of choice for his portraits isn’t a paintbrush; rather it’s his mountain bike.
You see, along with his water bottle and iPod, Michael uses GPS tracking technology to track and record where he and his bike go, and in the process he creates giant images. If you picture an Etch A Sketch drawing, you’ll get an hint of what he does as each of his images are strikingly similar to a massive Etch A Sketch drawing.
While some of his images may be pretty basic stuff — a gun, a boot, a hammer — if putting pencil to drawing board, but when you are tracing it out on a bike, it’s a whole different story — and a complex one at that. That said, he has moved into more ambitious GPS art creations, such as the Jellyfish Invasion and Tee It golfer.
What started out for Michael as a creative outlet, some exercise, and a bit of fun thrown in, has transformed into WallGPX.com , which is his very own website and online gallery where he showcases his works. There you can see his Map Gallery, which depicts his images on street maps or his Satellite Gallery, where you can see more of a bird’s eye view of his works. All-in-all, his website portfolio consists of 96 GPS tracking art creations, with an even split of map and satellite pieces.
Besides the main attraction of his website — his GPS riding art — Wallace describes what went into creating each piece. This includes initial image conception to drawing the outline of his route to the printout he carries with him his during his rides.
Michael’s works have been featured in newspapers and media, not only in the United States, but around the world.
Want to create some GPS riding art for yourself? Check out our selection of personal GPS devices, so you can digitally sketch your very own masterpiece.
