- October 5, 2011 • 7:00 am PDT
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If you buy a "WorldWide Carpet" by German designer David Hanauer, you can have the world beneath your feet. Hanauer’s carpets are printed with aerial Google Earth images of snowy wonderlands and the endless uniformity of trackhomes in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Viewed from above and printed as mirror images, the photos create a symmetrical pattern that baffles visually and pleases aesthetically. For Hanauer, artistically using the images Google shoots of our private homes and property is a way of taking back what he owns.
At 29, and still a student at the Academy of Media Arts and Design in Germany, his carpets have been sold in designer stores in Berlin for up to 400 euro, and his reversible frames are sold in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Hanauer, a product design major and photography minor, centers his work around taking familiar objects and altering their original form, purpose, or position, a habit he may have picked up from his previous three-year stint as a tailor for fashion label Escada.
Hanauer’s work can be found on his website, where you can purchase a carpet inspired by Google’s watchful eye. Click through the slideshow for more striking carpet designs as well as GOOD's interview with the visionary himself.
Interview edited for content and clarity. Photos courtesy of David Hanauer.
