Jenna deBoisblanc
November 2020
Custom software (paper.js, Mapbox)
Dimensions variable
Doodle Maps! Sketch your next adventure!
I created this silly route-making app while considering the role geospatial technologies in our commuting patterns. Aside from the impacts of surveillance capitalism, these ubiquitous way-finding algorithms prioritize efficiency and direct routes. While the benefits of these technologies are readily apparent, what are the costs? Are we traveling through landscapes like mindless bots at the behest of a digital black box? What discoveries come from taking new, uncharted, accidental paths? Have we lost the act of getting lost?
Through playful experimentation, I hope that Doodle Maps (along with a variety of other alternative maps I intend to create) helps to probe our increasing reliance on the geospatial algoithms developed by companies like Google.