Megan Smith is able to see the sites of British Colombia by bike, yet moments later be in a Regina classroom teaching students.
Smith is an assistant professor at the University of Regina’s fine arts department. When she’s not teaching, she’s peddling her way across Canada, virtually.
It’s part of a project called Riding Through Walls.
In her studio at the U of R, Smith’s bike is set up on a stage with fake grass and cotton batten clouds.
Images from Google Maps are projected in front and beside her blue stationary bicycle.
Smith has created a system where the movement of her wheel is in sync with Google Street View. As she cycles in real life, she virtually moves down the highway on Google Maps.
Some of Smith’s research interests are new media, geo-location and storytelling, so documenting her trip is a big part of the project. Every time she hops on her bike, Smith live streams the performance.
She also takes advantage of a Google Glass headset that lets her interact with people online.
“A few people have been connecting with me to say ‘hey, can you take a picture of this?,'” Smith said. “I can take that really quickly with a wink of an eye.”
Smith is also inviting people to bike along with her but from the actual locations where she virtually travels.
There will be lots of opportunities to join her. Smith said it should take her 18 months to conquer Canada.
After that, Smith said she’d love to use Google Maps to virtually bike on the bottom of an ocean or maybe even Mars.
Source: cbc.ca
