My Life as a Birch Forest

GPS activity charts 2004 - 2011

GPS activity charts 2004 – 2011

The image above is from the Jacquard Loom series (see here and here), using my python script to read a year’s worth of data from our GPS records and plugging in Peter’s processing script, the strips were produced, showing GPS activity much as in the previous posts.

The birch forest is ordered in the following way: the first strip on the left is 2004 (I started recording all my movements in April 2003 but have left this first incomplete year out of this for the moment), each strip being a year ending at 2011 on the right. January is top and December bottom, each black block is a half-hour period in which I recorded some GPS trace. The left of each ‘trunk’ is midnight.

Trips across the planet to other time zones show up as disruption to the blank strip on the left i.e. I appear to be active during the early hours of the morning as the GPS keeps recording time at UTC (or roughly speaking, GMT). The odd dot on the left are late-night outings that get less frequent after 2005 and the birth of our daughter.

The blank strips that go left to right are failures of data collection of some sort: forgetting to download, missing cable while away, lack of batteries etc.

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Jacquard Loom GPS visualisation II

Processing Jacquard Loom Visualisation

Processing Jacquard Loom Visualisation January 2012

After meeting up with Peter at Martin’s micro_blackdeath ATmega noise workshop at NK on Saturday, we were able to talk a bit more about what I’m calling the Jacquard Loom GPS visualisation of the activity in our database.

The python script wot I wrote a while ago visualises a 24-hour period as a line of text, the column width of which you can determine. If there is a GPS recording in the period in question, an asterisk is inserted, otherwise a space is shown. This gives a visual impression of how much (or how little) data we actually record each day.

The earlier post shows the output of this script as a printout from a dot matrix printer but I was talking to Peter about a processing application that reads the script output of asterisks and spaces and visualises this as simple black boxes and gaps. Even though he has plenty to do to finish his MA, he whipped up a quick script that produced the image above.

The picture above shows 1 month (January 2011 – there are 31 lines), the black is where there is GPS data, the white where there is none. The blank space in the left of the image is the time from midnight, so basically no GPS because we’re asleep or at least at home. Because there are 48 blocks, each block represents 30 mins. Compare the image above from Winter to this one below from Summer where you can clearly see the effects of the warmer weather and how it effects our GPS data.

I’d still like to see this knitted…

Processing Jacquard Loom Visualisation June 2012

Processing Jacquard Loom Visualisation June 2012

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A new way of looking at the GPS traces

OpenFrameworks still 2010 alpha 5

OpenFrameworks still 2010 alpha 5

After meeting Peter today, I decided to finally look at the alpha setting on his openframeworks application we use for lots of our work to explore a possible solution to getting a 3D printer to make a frequency map from a detail of our map. This is the urge that led to the clay and plaster shenanigans I mention here.

Selecting a year in Berlin when we lived in the same area (2010), I tried an alpha setting for the GPS tracks of 5 with the result, when you zoom out, of being able to see quite nicely the most frequently iterated streets and indeed pinpoint our street with ease (see above). It kind of reminds me of Joseph Wright of Derby, with his dramatic sense of lighting and black painting edges.

Openframeworks still 2010 alpha 5 detail

Openframeworks still 2010 alpha 5 detail

In the detail, when you zoom in closer (or use a smaller scale to use map language), there is a nice chalky quality to the lines. Hmm – maybe a candidate to blur the lines…?

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Clay and Plaster Frequency Map III

The moment of truth as I peeled back the clay on Friday last week.

Peeling back the clay from the plaster

Peeling back the clay from the plaster of the frequency map

I was very excited by the structures revealed as a result of digging out the clay to varying depths dependent on how many times I’d been down the streets surrounding our flat. I was pleased by the organic, root or rhizome-like structures that also made me think of mycelium – perhaps because everything was still stained with the red clay and looked very earthy. The visual metaphor felt right though.

A view of the frequency map showing high ridges on the street we live on

A view of the frequency map showing high ridges on the street we live on

From the side, Mat and I enjoyed the mountain-like terrain that the ridges built, a landscape made from use, an object made by hand but with a digital method of reproduction and data gathering.

Side view of the plaster cast of the streets round our house showing mountain-like terrain

Side view of the plaster cast of the streets round our house showing mountain-like terrain

There are, after all, landscape metaphors in the digital world: data ‘mining’, ‘cloud’ computing, data ‘mountains’, not to mention the urban ‘canyons’ talked about in relation to GPS reception in cities.

Detail of plaster object showing rhizomatic, root-like representation of journeys

Detail of plaster object showing rhizomatic, root-like representation of journeys

The tallest peak in this mountain range is of course where we live, being the most reiterated spot on the map as we always come back here, even if the GPS doesn’t have reception at first (although the new etrex 10s are pretty fast starting up)

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