Flip Flop Flying

I’ve been feeling a bit lifeless for the past month or so. Mostly I’ve been preparing paintings for Back to the Future IV, my forthcoming exhibition in Düsseldorf. I’ve not really been enjoying the work, or life for that matter. But the clouds are looking like they might be parting. I’ve been doing some stuff on the Flip Flop Fly Ball site, and that’s cleared my mind a bit. I did a painting I actually like yesterday, too. And last night, about 1am, I had an idea. It’s the first time in a very very long time I’ve had an idea that has made me get out of bed to start working on it. I did that until 5am, and when I woke at 11.30am, I started on it straight away. It’s finished now. So with apologies to Massive Attack and Google, here’s a recreation of the Unfinished Sympathy video made with Google Street View. It’s about 15MB, so it might take a while to load.

Update 29 Jan: A few people have emailed and mentioned a couple of things I should address. First, every possible screengrab from Google Street View has been used. There are no missing frames, and that’s why some images stay on screen for ten or more seconds. If there were more possible images, I’d have used them.

Second, I could have made it shorter, made the screengrabs a bit more animate-y. I pondered it, but felt that the idea to match up as best as possible with what you see on Google Street View dictated having it full length. Plus, I really enjoy just staring at seemingly boring streets. And I kind of like the idea of leaving it up to you to envisage where Shara Nelson would be on the street.

Here’s a Google Maps link so you can see it for yourselves. And here’s a YouTube link to the real video.

I wonder what it is within the human brain that compels us to pull off a leaf when we walk by a hedge.

And, you’ve got your headphones on, walking down the street, mouthing—not singing—along to the song on your mp3 player. Why? Why do we do that? If we’re not actually gonna enjoy the act of singing, why bother miming?

Drawn using Brushes application on the iPod touch/iPhone. More of my finger painting in the Much Fuck It’s Drawing section.

A couple of years ago, I put up a post with some Google Maps anomalies; where the aerial images have been stitched together showing buildings with different perspectives next to each other. I was looking at São Paulo on Google Maps last night and there’s some really good stuff there, too. (Click images to see location in Google Maps.)

Drawn using Brushes application on the iPod touch/iPhone. More of my finger painting in the Much Fuck It’s Drawing section.