The London Circuit

September 10, 2012 10:59 PM

Artist Yuri Suzuki has made a map of the London Underground as a functional radio circuit board.

(Short Vimeo interview with artist)

More making-of photos on his Flickr pages (photostream link, look for photos between July 27 and September 4).

posted by barnacles (15 comments total)

Now that's a circuit board Steve Jobs could get behind!
posted by mazola at 11:05 PM on September 10, 2012

I would like to see one for San Narciso
posted by chavenet at 11:22 PM on September 10, 2012 [1 favorite]

That's beautiful.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:24 PM on September 10, 2012 [1 favorite]

Gorgeous - I always thought PCB circuit boards had a certain elegance to them, but this is the first time I've seen such an intentional harnessing of the medium. Love it!
posted by Salvor Hardin at 1:02 AM on September 11, 2012

Put two heatsinks in cockfosters and a couple more resisters in Picadilly. Add capacitors between Camden Town and Victoria station and call me in the morning.

Neat, neat, so very neat...
posted by Skygazer at 1:18 AM on September 11, 2012

God, "London, London, London" - bleagh. "Oooh tremble at my financial crisis then look at my Jubilee boat parade now gasp at my Olympics wait now check out my Paralympics hey now I'm a radio".

Jesus Christ London, can you stop trying to hog ALL the attention? What are you going to do next, fold yourself up into a four-dimensional origami swan and flap off around the world shitting on other cities' heads while Coldplay dance around on your back singing another smash-hit pop song with precisely three notes in it??? "Paradise" SUCKED.

That being said: great post.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 1:41 AM on September 11, 2012 [5 favorites]

Yeah London, you great big attention seeking whore....

(I thought the London Olympics went beautifully, London's a world-class city all the way...swoon...)
posted by Skygazer at 1:49 AM on September 11, 2012

But does it connect up with a universal serial bus?
posted by MuffinMan at 1:59 AM on September 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

I love this so very much. I loved it even more when I saw 'Piccadilly Circuit' and 'Regent Spark' and Clapham Jumper', and then I saw 'Ohmerton' and I pretty much fell over. I intend to visit this at the Design Museum at the earliest opportunity.
posted by corvine at 2:31 AM on September 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

But does it connect up with a universal serial bus?

More like a Route(r)master, amirite?
posted by chavenet at 2:34 AM on September 11, 2012

Should really have tubes...
posted by Devonian at 4:23 AM on September 11, 2012 [3 favorites]

Mind the band gap.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 4:36 AM on September 11, 2012 [5 favorites]

Variations on a Tube Map
posted by still_wears_a_hat at 5:25 AM on September 11, 2012

Should really have tubes...

Doesn't quite work. They call 'em valves over there.
posted by jedicus at 9:25 AM on September 11, 2012

There's a certain circular irony in the London tube diagram being turned into a circuit board, because Harry Beck, the original designer back in the 1930s, was also an electrician. He made the debt obvious with his The Underground ‘straight eight’ all-electric skit-set circuit diagram spoof in the Underground's staff magazine in March 1933.

Those with a particular interest in maps should go to the Mind the Map exhibition at the London Transport Museum; it's on until the 28th of October and includes lots of derivatives and references to the Beck diagram, as well as some earlier illustrated maps which are well worth seeing (even if, like me, you prefer the minimalism of the Tube map).
posted by blech at 1:59 PM on September 11, 2012 [1 favorite]