A while back I wrote about famous album covers as seen on Google Maps; it gave the Internet something it craved: something nostalgic packaged in something contemporary, like an alien wearing a Dr. Seuss hat or an iPad app version of the Coney Island Cyclone. It was meant to inspire wistful excitement and to leverage fond memories for as many page views, tweets and likes as humanly possible. And for the most part it worked. What was really interesting though wasn't audience response to a silly blog post, but the shocking amount of sites I discovered afterwards dedicated entirely to online maps or acting as the inspiration for art projects using them.Maps are no longer just maps: they let us be flies on infinite walls; omniscient passersby wandering through surreal landscapes and curious explorers searching for, well, almost literally anything.Look at Bob Egan, a 57-year old commercial real estate agent in New York City who's been running the website PopSpots in his spare for more than a year. With PopSpots, Bob is dedicated to hunting down the exact coordinates of where significant events in pop culture took place. Bob is all about attention to detail, which I can appreciate. Imagine if Columbo became a celebrity tour guide. For example, his quest to discover where the photo on this Who record was taken is so exhaustive, I can hardly believe he has a day job. In fact, all of his posts share an obsession for accuracy. I interviewed Bob via email to talk about what the hell the Internet is and why people give a crap about maps.Motherboard: How did PopSpots get started?
I started doing PopSpots just to share my knowledge of pop culture historic hot spots of New York places for visitors to New York and rock and roll fans. When I went to London once I picked up a book called Rock 'n' Roll London and had a great time seeing all the old rock sights I had heard about, like Abbey Road and the street where the cover of Ziggy Stardust was shot. If somebody said to me, Would you rather see Westminster Abbey or Abbey Road?, I'd choose Abbey Road.
How many eyeballs does your site typically get?
A blog called Visual News put together a group of my photos and posted them on Imgur and the photos got 8 million page views. I didn't believe it myself, so I emailed Imgur and the representative there said it was true and that I was one of their highest performers for the week. Imgur itself gets 850 million hits a day to the photos they post.
Why do you think people care about seeing where album covers were shot?
Back in the days of large album covers, you often listened to the music while studying the back and front of the record. Even if you never cared where exactly it was taken. When you see the photo in its actual surroundings it really seems like a discovery, like it's come to life or something. On PopSpots I put the album in the exact position as where the photo was taken, plus I make it semitransparent, so at the same time that you see the actual location, you also have a nostalgic sense that time has passed since the photo was taken. And the music and time period that these photos evoke are usually pleasantly memorable for most people.
Anything you're dying to find?
My holy grail is the cover of Dylan's Blonde on Blonde. I have only the barest of information on the cover, which I write about in my Highway 61 Revisited entry. I've even spoken to the photographer, Jerry Schatzberg, but he can't remember where it was either. As you can see from the photo, which is blurry because the photographer and Dylan were shivering, I think they drove to the west side of Manhattan, took the shot, then got back into the car for warmth and took off. Stay tuned though, I haven't given up.
What's your technique?
I start with Google, Google Images, and Google Books, then I usually use Google Maps and Bing Bird's Eye view to poke around the city from above. Flickr is a good place for visual clues and the New York Public Library's digital archive has thousands of old photos. I often go to the map room of the New York Public Library too and look at tax maps from the mid-century.
Why do you think people like to use a practical service like Google Maps or Bing to have fun or make art?
The internet enables anyone to be a desktop sleuth and traveler. I recently bought a used record from 1964 by The Seekers. On the cover the group is sitting on a bench with the words "Manchester Square 1953" on it; they were in front of a tree. Within 2 minutes, via the internet, I was on the street in Manchester Square, England by the bench and the tree.
What do you think people like on the Internet?
I think people like to see new things on it. New videos, new news, new images of celebrities. In the old days you had a handful of TV channels showing half an hour-long shows and commercials. With the web it's like thousands of tiny TV networks for every taste imaginable. And you can find pictures of anything you ever wanted to see in seconds; you can be any place on the planet in seconds. Once I spent an afternoon touring through the Greenwich Village of Tokyo. I forget what it's called, but it saved me a trip to Tokyo.
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From 9 Eyes by Jon Rafman
I started doing PopSpots just to share my knowledge of pop culture historic hot spots of New York places for visitors to New York and rock and roll fans. When I went to London once I picked up a book called Rock 'n' Roll London and had a great time seeing all the old rock sights I had heard about, like Abbey Road and the street where the cover of Ziggy Stardust was shot. If somebody said to me, Would you rather see Westminster Abbey or Abbey Road?, I'd choose Abbey Road.
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Here's Bob at the Hell's Kitchen Flea Market on West 39th Street, where he searches for obscure photos of historic New York and long out-of-print albums.
A blog called Visual News put together a group of my photos and posted them on Imgur and the photos got 8 million page views. I didn't believe it myself, so I emailed Imgur and the representative there said it was true and that I was one of their highest performers for the week. Imgur itself gets 850 million hits a day to the photos they post.
Steely Dan, Pretzel Logic via PopSpots
Back in the days of large album covers, you often listened to the music while studying the back and front of the record. Even if you never cared where exactly it was taken. When you see the photo in its actual surroundings it really seems like a discovery, like it's come to life or something. On PopSpots I put the album in the exact position as where the photo was taken, plus I make it semitransparent, so at the same time that you see the actual location, you also have a nostalgic sense that time has passed since the photo was taken. And the music and time period that these photos evoke are usually pleasantly memorable for most people.
Bob Dylan, "I Want You" single matched with a photo from the New York Public Library via PopSpots
My holy grail is the cover of Dylan's Blonde on Blonde. I have only the barest of information on the cover, which I write about in my Highway 61 Revisited entry. I've even spoken to the photographer, Jerry Schatzberg, but he can't remember where it was either. As you can see from the photo, which is blurry because the photographer and Dylan were shivering, I think they drove to the west side of Manhattan, took the shot, then got back into the car for warmth and took off. Stay tuned though, I haven't given up.
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London via Streetview Stereographic
I start with Google, Google Images, and Google Books, then I usually use Google Maps and Bing Bird's Eye view to poke around the city from above. Flickr is a good place for visual clues and the New York Public Library's digital archive has thousands of old photos. I often go to the map room of the New York Public Library too and look at tax maps from the mid-century.
Simon & Garfunkel, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. via PopSpots
The internet enables anyone to be a desktop sleuth and traveler. I recently bought a used record from 1964 by The Seekers. On the cover the group is sitting on a bench with the words "Manchester Square 1953" on it; they were in front of a tree. Within 2 minutes, via the internet, I was on the street in Manchester Square, England by the bench and the tree.
I think people like to see new things on it. New videos, new news, new images of celebrities. In the old days you had a handful of TV channels showing half an hour-long shows and commercials. With the web it's like thousands of tiny TV networks for every taste imaginable. And you can find pictures of anything you ever wanted to see in seconds; you can be any place on the planet in seconds. Once I spent an afternoon touring through the Greenwich Village of Tokyo. I forget what it's called, but it saved me a trip to Tokyo.