MAN CYCLES OVER 400 KILOMETRES TO DRAW OLYMPICS MAP ART
There are still a few days left in the Paris Olympics, but a man in the other side of the English Channel came up with a novel way to commemorate the event. GPS-based artwork is created by designer and cyclist Nicolas Georgiou. He uses the Strava app to create tracking models, and then he spends hours riding his bike and covers miles in order to "draw" a picture on the map of London.
Nicolas Georgiou's latest endeavour is a discus thrower based on the original Greek discus thrower, in honour of the Olympics. Georgiou was supposed to ride a bicycle for 264 miles across Surrey and London in the design, which was based on the logo for the 1948 London Olympics. He told the BBC that he spent 40 hours "cycling through day and night" to finish it. Even with only three hours of sleep, he completed it in two days. Drawing and cycling are combined in Georgiou's Strava art projects. This time, he was also able to honour the history of London's Olympic Games by touring some of the sites from the games that the city hosted in 1908, 1948, and 2012.
“I am a proud Londoner and love my city,” he says. “What a great way [to] celebrate and to look back.”
Even though it's impressive, Georgiou has made many other GPS artworks with sports themes. In honour of the Tour de France, he recently drew a cyclist and The Black Unity Bike Ride's logo.