I have a bicycle. Paris is big. I want to say that the lines I draw with my bicycle through this great city are extraordinary. The lines are just as wonderful as all the other lines I cross traced by all the other people. … These lines, for which I need many hours and which form an enormous circle by the time I come back and which make me tired, are more beautiful, more genuine and more justified than those I could draw on paper.
I am a part of all that I have met.
All humans draw lines by moving. Every life creates one unique design. If we imagine these lines visible, they would form a collection of unique geoglyphs, different for each person in the history of mankind. Taken all together, these lines would form a big encyclopedia of human geography.
In addition, these lines constitute our geographic identity more than formal entities such as nation states, religious affiliations, production lines, trade zones, or military unions. In a way, this line is my home country. It is the only part of the Earth I have ever seen.
There are, however, more questions than just those of æsthetics and identity. Thanks to GPS technology, today's geographic traces are visible. If you were born in the last decade, there is a chance all your paths were recorded by your (or your parents') digital device. The question of global digital surveillance looms over the shape of our geographic identity.
This piece is a personal exploration of all those questions. It took me a couple of weeks to reconstruct the map, with precise geographic coordinates. In addition to GPS data from latest travels, I've used old photo albums, interviews with family and friends, personal diaries from childhood, etc. I don't guarantee it is 100% correct, but it is the best I can make it. And it exists only in my hard drive.
This project is a continuation of the poetics of experimental geography I started with design projects such as the identities of the Good Old AI Lab and The Travel Club. It was presented at the Plan D design conference held at the Technical Museum in Zagreb, Croatia. We organized a related workshop for the same conference. ■
