Fake: Guy doesn't draw a picture of himself on the world using GPS unit

Devin Coldewey

Devin Coldewey is a Seattle-based writer and photographer. He has written for the TechCrunch network since 2007. Some posts he’d like you to read: The Dangers of Externalizing Knowledge | Generation i | Surveillant Society | Choose Two | Frame Wars | The User’s Manifesto | Our Great Sin His personal website is coldewey.cc. → Learn More

Wednesday, May 28th, 2008

Update: The whole stunt was fake. DHL is backtracking now, saying they didn’t have anything to do with it. Plus the guy looked like Devin and you should never trust Devin.

This guy wanted to make the biggest drawing ever. So instead of a pen, he put a GPS unit (plus a bunch of batteries) in an indestructible briefcase and sent it on an incredibly long and complicated journey around the world, tracking it all the while. The result is, as you see above, slightly doodly but pretty good for a bunch of DHL ships, trains, trucks and planes working unconsciously in concert.

It’s all a little ridiculous, not to mention pretty grandiose of him to make this enormous drawing of himself, but you’ll have to excuse my objections; most contemporary art disgusts me so I think I’m not the target audience. In any case, if it isn’t a hoax or DHL-funded stunt (update: yes), it’s an interesting use of technology. There’s a video as well, view it at the site or by clicking below. [via Metafilter]

Update: Not that it makes it any less cool for most of you, but this was done as a final project for a graduate advertising and design class. Probably completely underwritten by DHL. And a commenter at Metafilter notes that if it is real, it probably resulted in the burning of hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel. For shame, art.

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