Eleanor Edwards
MyMaps : Environments from a year of lockdown steps
Virtual environments created by combining steps taken and flights climbed data with exported Google Satellite geometry.
My Maps is a virtual environment generated by combining Google Satellite 3D data and my personal Steps and Flights Climbed data collected daily from March 2020 when lockdown in the UK began. Aware that I have explored very few places further than my surrounding postcodes, My Maps is a product of both finding new places close to home and the eagerness to tread different paths.
The inputted personal movement data is used to instigate particles in a random walk motion. Emitted within a virtual 3D space the particles travel based upon specifics determined by the incoming data. For example, the number of steps taken daily controls the life span of an emitter, in turn the number of emitters for each month is determined by the number of days.
Inspired by the distance checking within a Diffusion Limited Aggregation Algorithm, the My Maps program checks the position of each of the particles in relation to the pre-loaded 3D object exported from Google Satellite, using the Blender plug-in MapsModelImporter by Elie Michel. If a particles position meets the distance threshold requirements, checked against a singular triangle that makes up the larger object, that triangles data is added to a new shape within Processing.
Once all the particles have been emitted the new shape is rendered within the 3D space. Using the Peasy Cam library enables the viewer to explore the virtual environments.
My Maps can also be considered a data visualisation as a different take on the environment is rendered for each month. Users can switch between the months to experience the change in data over time.
Furthermore, the program runs random functions, resulting in unique results each occasion. Whether this piece is featured exhibition in a physical exhibition or in a more direct-to-viewer way no two experiences would be the same, mirroring the individual nature of everyone’s journey through the pandemic, both in terms of isolation experienced by many and the self-motivation required to keep moving forward.
The fragmented islands generated by the My Maps algorithm echo the disconnected atmosphere of life during lockdown.
My Maps’ would be installed in an exhibition space in a way that recreates the work- from-home set up so many have been experiencing. A laptop would be set upon a desk with a computer mouse, the desk would be dressed with other home-office paraphernalia, desk lamp, plant, a holiday photo in a frame, note pad etc. There would be a chair for the viewer to sit and explore from.
If a viewer was to download the project to their machine at home, I would expect they would be experiencing the work much the same to how it would be presented in an art gallery. Recreating in some way the physical experience, something that happened, and is still happening, so much during times of social distancing.
Ref:
https://github.com/eliemichel/MapsModelsImporter
http://paulbourke.net/fractals/dla/dla3d.pdf
Coding Train: DLA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cl_Gjj80gPE
