Hyderabad, a giant dog’s head?

HYDERABAD: Hyderabad is a canvas of imagination for artists Swathy and Vijay — this time, they have gone the extra mile for a labour of love and produced city’s first GPS-Art by tracing the map — to what looks like a giant dog head

From painting controversial graffiti to painting inspirational murals at schools, city-based artists Swathy and Vijay moiled over everything imaginable and dotted the city with their work. In their recent work, the artists have attempted tracing the Nehru Outer Ring Road (ORR) — with simple line drawings that look-alike, seem-alike giant dog head.  

“We had no idea what the final image would look like,” says Swathy, who has travelled with her husband Vijay across the length and breadth of the city. “When we went to Italy, we saw that high ankle boots with heels were a part of the culture — they have souvenirs denoting them and a lot of decors too. But why? The map of Italy seems like a giant high-ankle boot,” Swathy said, adding: “We thought we chart out Hyderabad and see what emerges.”

“We started connecting the roads of our travels on ORR to trace an outline. The pattern emerged it started resembling a dog,” Vijay said.

When they were done, the artist duo uploaded their GPS data to Google Earth and watched it come to life and materialise on the screen, post that they added a few strokes and finished.

“We all know how near and dear are these furry friends to us Hyderabadis. We created a graphics interchange format (GIF) stitched together digitally to form the final image, and it turned out as GPS art with some final touches,” added Vijay.

WHAT’S A GPS ART?
GPS Art is a method of drawing where anyone can use a GPS on their smartphone to follow a pre-planned route and create a large-scale picture or pattern. GPS data file recorded during the drawing process can be visualised using Google maps or Google earth, by overlaying route patterns. We can usually walk or run or cycle the route or use cars, or motorcycles to create larger pieces of GPS art. The first known GPS drawing Voyage of the Turtle was made by American artist Reid Stowe in 1999.