Tube Map Circuit Board – Working Radio

We’ve featured at least three maps since the last one derived from the tube network, so we must be due for another interpretation of London’s most famous map, and here is an innovative one – Yuri Suzuki‘s London Underground Circuit Map Radio. It’s a working radio, with a printed circuit board (PCB) of the tube network (and river) in copper. Components are attached to the network in strategic locations. Stations names are included – most unchanged but a few with an electrical pun on their name – Beck Street, Piccadilly Circuit, Earl’s Coil and so on. An FM aerial is attached to a hidden auxiliary “line” near the northern end of the Piccadilly line, while an AM aerial is attached to the river near Heathrow. The above link has more detailed photographs of the artwork and an overall view.

The map was inspired by Harry Beck’s own joke map which was a circuit diagram based on his own tube map, and which we’ve featured here before – it was part of the Transport Museum’s recent Mind the Map exhibition. Yuri took the next logical step and created a properly working radio based on the tube map. It can be viewed at the Design Museum in London – Yuri is the current Designer in Residence – until mid-January 2013.

You can see the artist talking about the creation on this Design Museum video.

Photo © Hitomi Kai Yoda. Hat-tip to the London Underground Blog and IanVisits.