It is a trend in new media art to use data as narrative, using such technologies such as rapid prototyping, networked data and computation design. In this curated show called “The Beauty of Data” in 2007, Jussi Angesleva (a German based interaction designer at the creative firm ART+COM and also a Professor at the Berlin University of Arts) showcased some of his students’ works. The following description of the show is taken from Jussi’s website:-
In the last few years, we have seen a drastic change in the structure of the internet. Data has become fluid, malliable material, that is easy to rearrange, filter and present. At the same time, converting data to physical objects has become accessible to the masses. With large format printers, vinyl and laser cutters, milling machines, rapid prototyping machines etc. it is possible reasonably easily to convert complex digital models to physical artifacts.
The Beauty of Data project explored this convergence of technologies and culture. Reacting to the above mentioned technological premise, our challenge was to look at the “sense” in representation. Sense in terms of legibility, and sensibility, but equally in terms of the aesthetics and sensuality of the representation.
This sculpture resembles a human beating heart. It is animated by data taken live from a Blogger API using a keyword search for emotional states.
An online service that records one’s social network’s mood messages, and in the ond of very week, delivers a lasercut kit for self-assembly, that is a gradually growing forest representing friends’ emotional landscape.
Visualising the consumption of virtual water, or how much water does the production of, say coffee require in irrigation, transport etc. all calculated together.
lohjianhui 