In the framework of our researches, we are focusing on interactive data visualizations, particularly on installations during exhibitions or special events. These sort of artifacts indeed offer a simple but effective way to make complex data understandable to as many people.
We’d like to share with you a selection of examples from 2004 on, among which you can find maps, interfaces activated by humans and real-time representations.
Floating.numbers (2004, Art+com studio)
Numbers are commonly seen as quantitative measures of entities. Depending on the context however, they often also have religious, historical, mathematical and philosophical meanings. Floating.numbers attempts to bring back this often forgotten or unknown layer of meaning into their interpretation in the age of digital determinism.
Documenta mobil (2005, ART+COM)
The largest art exhibition in the world went on tour in a 15 meters long truck as part of Kassel’s application to become the Cultural Capital of Europe in 2010 and to celebrate its 50th anniversary. Inside the truck in front of the original posters from the eleven documenta exhibitions so far is an 11 meters long interactive table installation.
Tech Stuff ( 2007, ToDo)
For the launch of the book+DVD Tech Stuff (a documentary made of episodes about techniques, artists and bizarre instruments that made the history of electronic music), ToDo was asked to transform the project into an interactive preview able to convey the identity of QOOB and ISBN Edition and through instant interaction and fun. To build a strong bond with the corporate images of QOOB and ISBN, they developed a concept of interaction based on cubic cardboard and barcode: 9 different types of cubes (one per subject) and an adhesive- barcode on each side of the cube.
Users could then explore the contents of a particular topic, one at a time by placing the 6 faces of the cube on a workstation equipped with a barcode reader, while a second location was possible to ‘tune’ with a simple potentiometer on several samples related audio.
Highly Adaptable (2008, Zum Kuckuck)
At the “Product Experience Center” of the Deutsche Telekom in Darmstadt, Germany, one can experience the productivity of the company’s network infrastructure through the visualization of data streams. Processing analyzes the international data interchange as well as the network traffic in real time, and reproduces it three-dimensionally, creating a cinematic sequence on a large size plasma screen, prominently placed in the room.
mæve (2008, University of Applied Sciences Potsdam)
The interactive installation “mæve” (MACE-Everyville) provides visual and tangible access to the social and intellectual networks behind architectural projects. The installation was part of the 11th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale. mæve connects the entries of the Everyville student competition and puts them into the larger context of MACE content and metadata. By placing physical project cards on an interactive surface, users can explore the presented projects, embedded in an organic network of associated projects, people and media.
Interactive city map of Berlin (2009, ART+COM)
Within the scope of the image campaign “be Berlin”, the Berlin Senate Chancellery commissioned ART+COM to create a central installation for the town hall lobby. ART+COM developed an extensive interactive media table, on which visitors can playfully click through the city. The Berlin-shaped, four-square-metre table surface shows a satellite map of the city that displays information on history, interesting places and Berlin cultural sites. In addition to the sights, one can also find life stories about the ambassadors of the campaign.
Pro Aurum Interactive Lobby (2009, Envis Precisely)
Gold vendor Pro Aurum commissioned this visualization for the opening of the headquarters in Monaco It is a permanent exhibition taking place in their foyer and shows data about gold production, trade and about the company itself in a series of interactive animated graphs. All graphics are composed of little golden particles that flock together in order to form shapes, graphics and text. The user can toggle between various visualizations which are shown on a 3×3 monitor matrix using a touchscreen terminal.
London Design Museum Installation (2009, Chris Boardman)
Chris Boardman installation featured as part of the Super Contemporary exhibition, and illustrated the history of the digital industry across London from 1994 through to 2007.
He developed a dynamically-driven, physically-interactive timeline that allowed to collate agency data and then just drop it into the app as XML at runtime. The public were able to control the timeline using a little round knob attached to the wall underneath a plasma display.
Salt worldwide (2010, ART+COM)
The German Salt Museum in Luneburg updated its exhibition with an interactive installation, entitled “Salt Worldwide”. It vividly tells the story of the salt around the world by simulating a virtual world made out of salt: there are 34 touch sensitive salt crystals spreading over the map highlighting salt concentrated areas in the world. When touched the crystals start to glow and from underneath the crystal grains of salt pour over the table and merge into an information window, which displays details of the chosen salt mine through text, images and movies.
Agenda Italia 2020 (2011, ToDo)
In the framework of Stazione Futuro, ToDo did also Agenda Italia 2020, which showed a flow of data and statistics on the actual italian situation (education, job market, public health, elderly people, internet revolution and energetic strategies) and generated a choreography of LED-texts lightly dancing on dark and elegant steles. Not much interactivity, but still an interesting experimentation.
Stazione Futuro (2011, ToDo)
Stazione Futuro was an exhibition for the 150th anniversary of the Italian state. It celebrated the best in Italian creativity and innovation, focusing on the pivots of change in the next 10 years: energy, environment, recycling, chemistry, textiles, mobility, home, food, communication, work, robotics, space.
ToDo agency made an interactive map of future food, allowing to explore slow-food districts scatterd all over the country, including regional specialties. Also, there were other informative tables and severals graphic to tell the prospects offered by endless small concrete initiatives.
Streamflow (2011, Elvis Precisely)
Streamflow is a permanent installation at the Deutsches Museum in Munich. It represents AMGEN, the world’s largest biotech company, which is a sponsor of the museum.
The installation shows a flow of data about the company, text and images move along a stream of light that spans over four screens. You can interact with the data by accelerating and decelerating the flow; to do so, just move your hands along the surface.
Max Planck Research Network (2011, Moritz Stefaner)
This multi-touch installation reveals how Max Planck Institutes collaborate with each other, and with their international partners. Stefaner analysed data from SciVerse Scopus for over 94,000 publications over the last ten years. A dynamic network provides a high-level map of the Max Planck Institutes and their connections; the size of the institute icons represents the number of scientific publications, and the width of the connecting lines the number of jointly published papers between two institutes.
Interactive map at the Hamburg History Museum (2012, ART+COM)
The touch-sensitive installation is the central element of the section The Harbour – A Key Stimulus at Hamburg History Museum. It’s a 3.5 metre square table interactive table that allows visitors to undertake an interactive journey through time and space, exploring the development of the city from the Middle Ages through to the present day. Visitors use a mechanical time wheel to navigate their way through eleven epochs and discover how the structure of the city and the landscape were transformed over time. In each period the most important urban changes and incisive historical events are highlighted.
Prism (2012, Keiichi Matsuda)
Inside the cupola of the Victoria & Albert museum for the London Design Festival, data streams from all over the city were visualised on the faceted surfaces of Japanese/British designer Keiichi Matsuda’s installation. The Prism installation took live information including wind speed, air pollution levels, traffic updates, the number of cycle-hire bicycles currently in use and even the energy consumption of the prime minister’s residence, then represented it with graphic patterns to create a “live patchwork of London”.
Emoto (2012, Nand Studio)
Based on approx. 12.5 million Twitter messages which were aggregated in real-time, Emoto captured trending topics and how they were discussed online in an interactive visualisation which was running live in parallel to the Olympic Games in July and August 2012. Each Tweet was annotated with a sentiment score by the project’s infrastructure using software provided by Lexalytics. This data formed the basis for an extensive profiling of London2012 which was finally documented in this interactive installation and physical data sculpture at the WE PLAY closing exhibition of the Cultural Olympiad in the Northwest.
Porto Maravilha exhibition (2012, Super Uber)
As part of the interventions surrounding the renovation of Rio de Janeiro’s Port area, SuperUber was invited to create the interactive multimedia exhibition allowing the public to explore the new urban project of the Port area. Called “My Porto Maravilha”, the exhibition is divided into three moments: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow, with installations integrating the architecture, technology, design, and content created in partnership with Concessionária Porto Novo, Comunicação Mais, Arte 3 e Tecnopop.
