Karmactive Staff
Duncan McCabe, a 32-year-old accountant from Toronto, has taken GPS art to new heights with his mesmerizing animated stick figure created using the fitness tracking app Strava. McCabe’s 27-second video, which shows a dancing stick figure set to the song “Purple Hat” by Sofi Tukker, has gone viral on social media, racking up over 25 million views on X (formerly Twitter) alone.
McCabe’s animation required meticulous planning and an incredible physical effort. Over 10 months, McCabe completed 121 runs totaling approximately 700 kilometers to map out each frame of the animation across the streets of Toronto. McCabe noted that achieving motion in his animation required a high number of frames per second to ensure the stick figure appeared fluid and lifelike. Many of his runs were around 6 miles long, although some were longer or shorter depending on the specific segment needed.
What sets McCabe’s work apart from other GPS art is that it is animated rather than a static image. He used PowerPoint to pre-map each frame of the animation, ensuring smooth transitions and consistency in the stick figure’s size from frame to frame. McCabe then used Strava’s map function to record each run, later extracting the individual routes and merging them using video editing software. McCabe explained that he carefully aligned the streets in his animation to ensure a stable background throughout the video.
One of the challenges McCabe faced was creating diagonal lines for the animation, as roads and buildings often stood in the way. To overcome this, he would pause his Strava tracking, run to the desired destination while the app was paused, and then resume tracking. He explained that when Strava is unpaused, the app draws a direct line between the paused and resumed locations. This technique meant he often ran one to two miles further than what Strava recorded.
McCabe drew inspiration from other notable Strava artists, such as San Francisco-based Lenny Maughan and fellow Toronto resident Mike Scott, who famously biked a GPS route in the shape of a giant beaver. In 2023, McCabe created a series of animal drawings leading up to the Toronto Waterfront Marathon.
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Despite some skepticism about the diagonal lines in McCabe’s animation, Strava’s official team gave his creation a “10/10” rating for its creativity. The project has also garnered praise from the GPS art community, which has grown significantly in recent years. The “Strava Art” Instagram account, managed by GPS artist Gary Cordery, now boasts nearly 71,000 followers, with the corresponding website receiving around 20,000 monthly page views.
Other prominent GPS artists include Nicholas Georgiou, a cyclist based in central London who created a 264-mile discus thrower and Olympic rings design to mark the 2024 Summer Olympics, and Janine Strong, a New York-based artist known for her intricate designs like “Girl With a Pearl Earring” and a lion. Strong recently made a GPS art depiction of a duct-taped banana as a commentary on wealth inequality, stating, “I want to use this art form to say something meaningful.”
While McCabe’s animation has brought GPS art into the spotlight, the movement has been steadily growing thanks to the increasing popularity of fitness-tracking apps like Strava. As Cordery notes, “I think it’s going to grow with new things coming, like bigger and more detailed routes. It makes your activities, your running, and your exercise a bit more interesting.”
For McCabe, the 10-month journey was challenging but deeply rewarding. Duncan McCabe explained that his Strava art project was both a surprising and rewarding experience, noting that the creativity behind it emerged from an unexpected place. He described the process as enjoyable and fun, highlighting how the entire journey was full of surprises. His viral success showcases the potential for blending fitness and art innovatively, inspiring others to push the boundaries of what’s possible with GPS-tracking technology.
