Paths of desire

Introduction

My final project is to do with invisible architecture. I had to make a model that was an example of invisible architecture. Before I could do this I had to understand what invisible architecture actually was. Invisible architecture are tracks that are left behind without realising that they are there. Example of this are: the most commonly walked routes in the shopping mall, the different temperature in a building caused by where people are most, where phone signal are strongest and weakest, or where people walk in the park. All of these are paths people leave behind and for my final project I had to choose one of these paths and bring it to life.

Idea

For my final project I choose to do my first idea. I decided I would map out the paths of a Park. Once I have mapped out the main paths, I will then map out the desired paths. The path people want to take. I will map the main paths in red and then the desired paths in blue. I will use GPS drawing to map out the paths. This will show what the paths should look like to best fit the desired path.

The park I originally choose was central park however as I started tracking the park I noticed that the signal was very weak and I also kept losing it from time to time. Down in the lower part of the park I could not pick up a signal at all. This caused me great problems, without being able to get a signal I could not complete my track of the park. Also I soon realised that this park was too large for me to show the detail I wished. So I decided to change to St Jude’s park. This park was a lot smaller and would allow me to show the details I wanted to show. Using this park would also give me the opportunity to be more precise with my mapping and make sure it is tracking me correctly.

The process

I started by walking around the park, I walked all the normal paths in the park. These paths were well laid out and you could tell that the person who designed the paths had really thought about the best place to put them. After I walk all the paths in the park I then walked all the paths of desire these were the faint paths on the grass (where people had worn it down from walking) and following where people were walking in the park. Once I got home and uploaded these paths onto my computer I realised that the tracking was off, it did not show which paths I had walked. So I decided to go back to the park and do both the walks again. I decided to walk slower and make sure it was picking up where I was. The paths of desire track came out much the same with only with a few differences. But the normal paths were a great improvement. My tracks match the paths I had walked.

The technology

I used a hand held computer with the Pathway software to track my walk. The equipment was not very clear and I wasn’t sure if it was actually mapping where I was walking. I could see that it was counting the amount of time I was walking and that the direction I was walking in (north, south, east or west) was showing up. When I changed direction so did the arrow.

The longitude and latitude was also changing, and this indicated that the GPS was registering me. However, there was no indication as to whether or not it was drawing my route. I was only able to tell this when I upload the routes to the computer. I uploaded the route and it had tracked me walking, however, the track was not where I had walked. This may have been caused by a number of factors such as the signal strength dropping and losing of the signal altogether. When I did the tracking again I kept a close eye on the signal strength and it stayed the same all the way around. This tracking was a lot more reliable. I have very mixed feeling about the equipment. When the equipment works it is a very good, however you need to leave enough time to complete the tracking more than once to make sure it is precise and that it follows the paths.

The images produced

First attempt at tracking

As you can see from looking at this track it does not match the paths very well. Even though I walked them exactly.

This has pretty much tracked where I have walked. Even if not correct it would not stand out very much because it isn’t something you can see on the map.

Second attempted at tracking

As you can see this track follows the paths a lot more accurately. There are still some mistakes with the tracking but this is a lot clearer then my first tracking.

As you can see this second tracking for the paths of desires are pretty much the same as the first one. The only difference is that I have tracked more paths this time by observing where people were walking and the most popular routes.

Paths Compared

This image shows the two paths on top of each other over the map. As you see the blues lines and the red lines do cross at certain points. From looking at the picture most of the paths of desire cut from one exit of the park to the other. This indicates that is park could be used as a cut though, to try and make a journey shorter.

Wire Frames

Paths


Paths of desire


Paths Compared

These are call wire frames because you can only see the outlines. These are my tracking of the park. From looking at them from this view you can notice patterns start to form. You also get a better idea where the paths cross over when they are places on top of each other.

Conclusion

My conclusion is that the paths in this park are well designed. Most people walking thought the park stick to the main paths, so it is clear someone put a lot of thought into where to put the paths. However there are still a number of path of desire. There are improvements that could be made to the paths. They could follow the pattern of my paths of desires more. Also there are lots of paths that circle small parts the grass. This seems a bit pointless as both paths lead to exactly the same point and run alongside each other. It would make more sense if they just had one path and made use of the extra grass that this would make available.