Experiments in Embodied GPS Drawing
This experimental embodied drawing practice employs global positioning technology, not as a navigational tool, but as a drawing tool, which tracks relative and relational movements between human and canine bodies.
Methods:
GPX files are extracted from the two devices, a human carried mobile phone and a canine carried GoPro camera. Both tracklogs where then extracted and animated using GPX Animator, open-source software. Both of the walks captured here where 'off lead' from two of our regular meadows walks.
Equipment:
- Outdoor GPS Tracker App (iPhone – Human mounted)
- On board GoPro camera GPS Telemetry (canine mounted)
- Open-source camera telemetry extractor
- GPX Animator (open-source application)
Discoveries:
These drawings express the vitality of canine navigation, drawn through landscape by sensory stimuli, rather than forging a direct, quickest route from A to B. The canine drawn line darts back and forth in a playful dance, following contours, edges, smells, and sounds, always keeping an eye on my position, checking in every so often for reassurance, before darting off again in the direction of a new sound or smell. The first of the two animations represent an embodied, drawing which simultaneously tracks the movement of canine and human bodies across an open field, which still has evidence of medieval strip farming practices and is now mostly used by grazing horses. The human body, although following the canine, takes a more direct route between points, whereas the canine body moves quickly between olfactory stimuli, drawing an altogether more spontaneous trajectory. Paths cross as the canine checks in with the human through subtle invitations to follow.
In the second example, human (yellow) and canine (red) tracks are animated from different points in time, by altering the track log time-code. This approach offers another example of the difference between ocular, horizon focused bipedal human navigation of space, and the canine’s seemingly more improvised movement, less dependent on visual cues and more driven by direct visceral connections with the landscape through smell and touch. There is a slight glitch on the canine line due to signal drop out, thus drawing a straight line between two points. This highlights some of the limitations of both the tracking system and the retrieval of the GPS data for animation purposes.
Both drawings, when read as collaborative actions of mark making, reveal a relational embodied and performative co-authored action.