A walk in Barcelona

This is a visualization of a 2-hour long walk through Barcelona.

Google Maps is now the dominant way to represent location and presence. My aim was to explore other options. What qualities of a walk are revealed when we take away the familiar image of the map?

I was influenced by Michel de Certeau & his The Practice of Everyday Life. To him, walking is a creative act that brings to city to life. He compares it to writing and drawing.

This project was done during a Processing workshop led by Cristobal Castilla. He had the fantastic idea to use the colors from Google Maps to visualize the trail. I like this indirect reference to GM, and it also shows something about how public space is used.

Data was recorded with AntiMap.
Reverse geocoding (streetnames) via OpenStreetMap.
Google Map images used for colors came from Google Static Maps API.
Data was visualized in Processing. I used the Unfolding map library for debugging and some PHP to stitch everything together.

I documented the process on the IAAC blog.