Monday 16 August 2010

The world’s biggest sign

For our regular art post tonight, something called GPS Art—which is not at all art, but is certainly something to do with GPS.

Apparently, a chap took a month off and travelled the length and breadth of the States to “write” this piece of art on Google Earth with his GPS unit. It’s a big sign with a big message. Here’s how it looks … (Click through to read on)

worldsbiggestwriting-660x647 The “artist,” Nick Newcomen, “actually traveled the lines he traced on the map. He used a GPS logger (Qstarz BT-Q1000X) to “ink” the message. Starting his trip in Marshall, Texas, he turned on the device when he wanted to write a letter and turned off the device between letters. The recorded GPS data was loaded into Google Earth to produce the image above.”  Story here.  Said Newcomen,
The main reason I did it is because I am an Ayn Rand fan. In my opinion if more people would read her books and take her ideas seriously, the country and world would be a better place — freer, more prosperous and we would have a more optimistic view of the future.
Which is all true.  Albeit a fairly … unique way to choose to say it. And it does look very cool.

[Thanks to readers Greg, Julian, Alister & Graham for the link.]

5 comments:

Eric Crampton said...

Why am I thinking of Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged?

Peter Cresswell said...

I don't know, why are you thinking of Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged? And who is he anyway??

DenMT said...

Eric: Heh. PC - I'm surprised that you don't recognise the reference to Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged, given that he is one of the most entertaining minor characters in Ayn Rand's excellent 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'.

DenMT

Eric Crampton said...

@PC: Re-read HHGTG. Wowbagger was an immortal who grew very very bored with the universe. So he decided to insult it. Personally. Individually. And, teeth-grittingly, in alphabetical order. In his space-time ship, he started off with the very first person in the universe (by alphabetical order of everyone who ever existed). Then the next one. Lots of flying. And he hoped that the path drawn by his ship, viewed from a suitable vantage point, would spell out something horribly insulting.

Do re-read all five books of the increasingly inaccurately named trilogy.

Peter Cresswell said...

Ah, the character sounds familiar, but no the name. Never been good with names.

Yes. I must re-read them. My memory is clearly failing.