Walking across America

Many of us have watched Matt Harding dance his way around the planet, proving that questionable choreography becomes strangely compelling once you add enough countries. Earlier this year, I wrote about the equally ambitious Bearded journey. Apparently, simply visiting places is no longer enough. You need a gimmick.

This time, a man walks across America, from New York to San Francisco. Well, sort of.

The team crossed the country in two weeks, shooting almost 3000 still photographs along the way and stitching them together into one wonderfully deceptive piece of motion. It looks like an epic transcontinental walk. In reality, presumably, there were cars, motel rooms, bad coffee and several thousand repetitions of “Okay, take another one.”

Still, the result is beautiful. America compressed into a few minutes of relentless forward motion, with an entire continent sliding past one carefully placed footstep at a time.

There’s also a behind-the-scenes video for anyone curious about how the illusion was made, along with the Google Maps route if you feel compelled to inspect the evidence.

And if crossing America suddenly seems a little provincial, there’s always Around the world in 80 seconds. Because apparently staying home and watching television like a normal person is no longer an option.