Get Friendly on Facebook
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe by RSS
A definite time killer of a site that’s all the rage at the moment – Rorschmap.com – has been holding my fascination for the past couple of days. The site creates kaleidoscopic images from Google Maps with often surprising results.
A rather in-Seine view of Paris, France
Rorschmap is a project of freelance programmer, designer, writer and editor James Bridle (@jamesbridle). He describes the Rorschmap project suchly:
Rorschmap is cartographic navel-gazing, a reframing of the map. It will not help you find anything. We are bored with your squares and your margins. We want new shapes and new dimensions, the unicode snowmen of visual representation.
James’ Google Map algorithm programme produces Rorschach-style results that are strangely addictive divided into four quadrants by reflecting, mirroring and flipping the starting point of your map. I find the interface is a little too sensitive for my fat fingers and as a result tend to start my ‘play’ by searching for a location using the search field at bottom left of the screen. Also, you may find it easier to scroll and zoom your map using the Google Map sliders.
If you’re looking for a specific location rather than just a random image, a final user tip I can recommend is to switch the view to “Roadmap” first, navigate to where you want to be and then switch back to the “Satellite” view. (Mind you, even the results in Road Map view are often pretty interesting too.)
Here’s a couple of locations Saffers may recognise after a bit of closer inspection:
Johannesburg:
Cape Town:
Durban:
Kimberley:
Some Google Map locations have satellite imagery down to street level, and in these places you can zoom all the way in to produce images such is this one showing St. Marks Basilica and the clock tower and square in Venice:
If you do visit the site and discover an interesting view, drop a link to it in the comments below (Right-click on the “Link” option to the right of the search box) and share it with us all.
2 Comments
You mean a link like this: http://rorschmap.com/?lat=25.293227750808&lng=82.27473059669137&z=12
Its of somewhere in India. I found it on my third random button press. Like the site warns, the first 2 were both of the middle of the ocean somewhere…
Fun site indeed. Off to see what else I can “create”
That’s exactly what I meant Sue-Leigh.
Nice find indeed. Thanks for sharing it.