Rorschmap Turns Google Maps Into A Kaleidoscopic Plaything

If you’ve ever thought Google Maps was a great tool for exploring the world via satellite but was missing a certain… let’s call it “trippiness”, then this new piece of map art is for you. Called Rorschmap, it comes from designer James Bridle, and lets you turn any destination in the world into a gallery-worthy image. Just type in a city or zipcode, click “Go” and watch the satellite image (or road map, should that excite you) turn into a spinning kaleidoscope—perhaps what a bird might see after hanging out above a coffee shop in Amsterdam.

The project aims to explore the aesthetic potential of digital maps, manipulating the raw content to create something that isn’t always related to their functionality. Bridle says “Rorschmap is cartographic navel-gazing, a reframing of the map. It will not help you find anything.” So don’t plan on using it to find that new restaurant you wanted to check out. Instead, you can just watch the world begin to slide in on itself as Google Maps becomes the cartographic equivalent of those toy kaleidoscope tubes you had as a kid. You can read more about the ideas behind it here.

London, UK

Brooklyn, NY

Manhattan, NY

San Francisco, CA