Throughout Palermo you can see the sky not only from the streets but also through the illusionistic ceiling paintings in the city's many palaces. These paintings typically use the perspective techniques di sotto in su (paintings seen from below) and quadratura (a highly realistic perspective that extends the architectural space). Inspired by these painting techniques, Connected by Air creates a data visualisation of the sky, di sotto in su.
The projection of Palermo’s sky on the room’s ceiling in Palazzo Ajutamicristo recreates a window that provides a comprehensive overview of all the data and objects that fill the sky. It includes wireless signals (2G, 3G, 4G coverage), satellites, air traffic (flight patterns), air conditions (particles, dust), and air flow (wind patterns). In addition, it visualises the wireless activity caused by visitor’s devices as they try to connect to the cloud through the “opening in the ceiling”. The visualisation changes colour throughout the day to match light conditions outside which adds to the effect of Quadratura.
Connected by Air projects a contemporary sky’s image as a carrier of people, matter and information.
Developed with the support of Creative Industries Fund NL and Dutch Culture
Throughout Palermo you can see the sky not only from the streets but also through the illusionistic ceiling paintings in the city's many palaces. These paintings typically use the perspective techniques di sotto in su (paintings seen from below) and quadratura (a highly realistic perspective that extends the architectural space). Inspired by these painting techniques, Connected by Air creates a data visualisation of the sky, di sotto in su.
The projection of Palermo’s sky on the room’s ceiling in Palazzo Ajutamicristo recreates a window that provides a comprehensive overview of all the data and objects that fill the sky. It includes wireless signals (2G, 3G, 4G coverage), satellites, air traffic (flight patterns), air conditions (particles, dust), and air flow (wind patterns). In addition, it visualises the wireless activity caused by visitor’s devices as they try to connect to the cloud through the “opening in the ceiling”. The visualisation changes colour throughout the day to match light conditions outside which adds to the effect of Quadratura.
Connected by Air projects a contemporary sky’s image as a carrier of people, matter and information.
Developed with the support of Creative Industries Fund NL and Dutch Culture
Electronica
The infosphere* relies on an intricate network of signals, wired and wireless, that support it. We are completely surrounded by an invisible system of data cables and radio signals from access points, cell towers and overhead satellites. Our digital lives depend on these very physical systems for communication, observation and navigation. The Architecture of Radio is a site-specific iPad application that visualizes this network of networks by reversing the ambient nature of the infosphere; hiding the visible while revealing the invisible technological landscape we interact with through our devices.
The architecture of radio app is a realtime, location based visualization of cell towers, wifi routers, communication, navigation and observation satellites and their signals. A site specific version of the app includes wired communication infrastructure embedded in the exhibition space. It's aim is to provide a comprehensive window into the infosphere.
*The infosphere refers to an interdependent environment, like a biosphere, that is populated by informational entities. While an example of the sphere of information is cyberspace, infospheres are not limited to purely online environments.
The infosphere* relies on an intricate network of signals, wired and wireless, that support it. We are completely surrounded by an invisible system of data cables and radio signals from access points, cell towers and overhead satellites. Our digital lives depend on these very physical systems for communication, observation and navigation. The Architecture of Radio is a site-specific iPad application that visualizes this network of networks by reversing the ambient nature of the infosphere; hiding the visible while revealing the invisible technological landscape we interact with through our devices.
The architecture of radio app is a realtime, location based visualization of cell towers, wifi routers, communication, navigation and observation satellites and their signals. A site specific version of the app includes wired communication infrastructure embedded in the exhibition space. It's aim is to provide a comprehensive window into the infosphere.
*The infosphere refers to an interdependent environment, like a biosphere, that is populated by informational entities. While an example of the sphere of information is cyberspace, infospheres are not limited to purely online environments.
Awards 2017
Digital networks are forever expanding. Places without cell phone reception or Wi-Fi connection are increasingly hard to find. The remaining White Spots on the digital map will soon disappear, leaving no place on earth unconnected. But what is happening off the grid?
White Spots is a collaborative multimedia project by information designer Richard Vijgen, documentary filmmaker Bregtje van der Haak, and visual artist Jacqueline Hassink. Working in various media, they travel beyond the frontiers of the networked world to explore unwired landscapes, communities, and lifestyles, questioning the need to be always connected in one seamless, planetary Tech-Topia.
While scarcely populated areas experience low connectivity for obvious economic reasons, the journey brings surprising stories of an often deliberate lack of connectivity, even inside the world's most intensely networked digital hubs.
In VR mode, the network scanner shows the invisible digital signals around you in real time and takes you on a journey to the end of the Internet in immersive 360° stories.
In Map mode, the White Spots world map shows the global divide between the connected and unconnected worlds. Browse the map to explore video stories about life off the grid or use the route planner to venture into uncharted territory yourself. The route planner finds a route to a White Spot near you and invites you to add new stories to the map.
The White Spots App features a world map, a network scanner, a GPS based route planner, short documentary clips and a series of virtual reality experiences.
Digital networks are forever expanding. Places without cell phone reception or Wi-Fi connection are increasingly hard to find. The remaining White Spots on the digital map will soon disappear, leaving no place on earth unconnected. But what is happening off the grid?
White Spots is a collaborative multimedia project by information designer Richard Vijgen, documentary filmmaker Bregtje van der Haak, and visual artist Jacqueline Hassink. Working in various media, they travel beyond the frontiers of the networked world to explore unwired landscapes, communities, and lifestyles, questioning the need to be always connected in one seamless, planetary Tech-Topia.
While scarcely populated areas experience low connectivity for obvious economic reasons, the journey brings surprising stories of an often deliberate lack of connectivity, even inside the world's most intensely networked digital hubs.
In VR mode, the network scanner shows the invisible digital signals around you in real time and takes you on a journey to the end of the Internet in immersive 360° stories.
In Map mode, the White Spots world map shows the global divide between the connected and unconnected worlds. Browse the map to explore video stories about life off the grid or use the route planner to venture into uncharted territory yourself. The route planner finds a route to a White Spot near you and invites you to add new stories to the map.
The White Spots App features a world map, a network scanner, a GPS based route planner, short documentary clips and a series of virtual reality experiences.
During the Dutch Design Week 2017, Het Nieuwe Instituut organised the Embassy of Data, an exhibition about the role of public and private data in the city.
For this exhibition I developed a data panorama that visualizes all smart-city infrastructure in a 400 meter radius around the exhibition space in the city center of Eindhoven [NL] (Eindhoven is the leading Smart City in the Netherlands).
The panorama features data from OpenStreetMap, municipal camera's, cell towers, water-level sensors, directional microphones, air quality sensors, motion, traffic and crowd detection, "City Beacons", citizen classification data and more than a 100.000 geolocated public notifications.
All data is presented light sources in a 360 degree panorama in a way that lights up area's of the city that are more heavily monitored than others. By adding the physical sensors that are used in the city to the installation, it becomes a kind of diorama, helping the audience to recognise the sensors in the city and understand their function.
The installation aims to translate the hidden abstraction of these technologies into a readable experience for a broad audience, providing a sense of ownership necessary for a nuanced discussion about the future of smart cities.
In collaboration with Linda Vlassenrood Exhibition Design: Koehorst in 't Veld
During the Dutch Design Week 2017, Het Nieuwe Instituut organised the Embassy of Data, an exhibition about the role of public and private data in the city.
For this exhibition I developed a data panorama that visualizes all smart-city infrastructure in a 400 meter radius around the exhibition space in the city center of Eindhoven [NL] (Eindhoven is the leading Smart City in the Netherlands).
The panorama features data from OpenStreetMap, municipal camera's, cell towers, water-level sensors, directional microphones, air quality sensors, motion, traffic and crowd detection, "City Beacons", citizen classification data and more than a 100.000 geolocated public notifications.
All data is presented light sources in a 360 degree panorama in a way that lights up area's of the city that are more heavily monitored than others. By adding the physical sensors that are used in the city to the installation, it becomes a kind of diorama, helping the audience to recognise the sensors in the city and understand their function.
The installation aims to translate the hidden abstraction of these technologies into a readable experience for a broad audience, providing a sense of ownership necessary for a nuanced discussion about the future of smart cities.
In collaboration with Linda Vlassenrood Exhibition Design: Koehorst in 't Veld
The infosphere* relies on an intricate network of signals, wired and wireless, that support it. We are completely surrounded by an invisible system of data cables and radio signals from access points, cell towers and overhead satellites. Our digital lives depend on these very physical systems for communication, observation and navigation. The Architecture of Radio is a site-specific iPad application that visualizes this network of networks by reversing the ambient nature of the infosphere; hiding the visible while revealing the invisible technological landscape we interact with through our devices.
The architecture of radio app is a realtime, location based visualization of cell towers, wifi routers, communication, navigation and observation satellites and their signals. A site specific version of the app includes wired communication infrastructure embedded in the exhibition space. It's aim is to provide a comprehensive window into the infosphere.
I created a large scale 360 degree projection of Architecture of Radio for STRP Biënnale 2017. A circular projection, 10 meters in diameter displays a wireless landscape that extends the visualisation in the iPad app. Where the app visualises all cell towers within range of the device (most within one kilometre distance), the 360º panorama visualises the wireless landcape beyond that (up to 100 km's).
Photo credit: Ruud Balk
*The infosphere refers to an interdependent environment, like a biosphere, that is populated by informational entities. While an example of the sphere of information is cyberspace, infospheres are not limited to purely online environments.
The infosphere* relies on an intricate network of signals, wired and wireless, that support it. We are completely surrounded by an invisible system of data cables and radio signals from access points, cell towers and overhead satellites. Our digital lives depend on these very physical systems for communication, observation and navigation. The Architecture of Radio is a site-specific iPad application that visualizes this network of networks by reversing the ambient nature of the infosphere; hiding the visible while revealing the invisible technological landscape we interact with through our devices.
The architecture of radio app is a realtime, location based visualization of cell towers, wifi routers, communication, navigation and observation satellites and their signals. A site specific version of the app includes wired communication infrastructure embedded in the exhibition space. It's aim is to provide a comprehensive window into the infosphere.
I created a large scale 360 degree projection of Architecture of Radio for STRP Biënnale 2017. A circular projection, 10 meters in diameter displays a wireless landscape that extends the visualisation in the iPad app. Where the app visualises all cell towers within range of the device (most within one kilometre distance), the 360º panorama visualises the wireless landcape beyond that (up to 100 km's).
Photo credit: Ruud Balk
*The infosphere refers to an interdependent environment, like a biosphere, that is populated by informational entities. While an example of the sphere of information is cyberspace, infospheres are not limited to purely online environments.
WifiTapestry is a dynamic wall hanging that visualises the wireless activity of a space. The tapestry visualises the ever changing "landscape" of radio frequencies around us. The invisible signals from Cellphones, printers and all kinds of smart devices leave an imprint as they try to negotiate available wireless channels.
A controller listens to all traffic across 13 channels of the 2.4GHz WiFi Spectrum. Whenever data is transmitted on a channel, the controller sends a current to an array of thermal elements embedded in the tapestry, converting data into heat and activating a thermochromic yarn woven into the tapestry. Like a Shroud of Turin, streams of data transmitted through a space appear as visual traces from an invisible dimension that gradually form and dissolve.
WifiTapestry is a dynamic wall hanging that visualises the wireless activity of a space. The tapestry visualises the ever changing "landscape" of radio frequencies around us. The invisible signals from Cellphones, printers and all kinds of smart devices leave an imprint as they try to negotiate available wireless channels.
A controller listens to all traffic across 13 channels of the 2.4GHz WiFi Spectrum. Whenever data is transmitted on a channel, the controller sends a current to an array of thermal elements embedded in the tapestry, converting data into heat and activating a thermochromic yarn woven into the tapestry. Like a Shroud of Turin, streams of data transmitted through a space appear as visual traces from an invisible dimension that gradually form and dissolve.
The Deleted City is a digital archaeology of the world wide web as it exploded into the 21st century. At that time the web was often described as an enormous digital library that you could visit or contribute to by building a homepage. The early citizens of the net (or netizens) took their netizenship serious, and built homepages about themselves and subjects they were experts in.
These pioneers found their brave new world at Geocities, a free webhosting provider that was modelled after a city and where you could get a free "piece of land" to build your digital home in a certain neighbourhood based on the subject of your homepage. Heartland was – as a neigbourhood for all things rural – by far the largest, but there were neighbourhoods for fashion, arts and far east related topics to name just a few. Around the turn of the century, Geocities had tens of millions of "homesteaders" as the digital tennants were called and was bought by Yahoo for three and a half billion dollars. Ten years later in 2009, as other metaphores of the internet (such as the social network) had taken over, and the homesteaders had left their properties vacant after migrating to Facebook, Geocities was shut down and deleted.
In an heroic effort to preserve 10 years of collaborative work by 35 million people, the Archive Team made a backup of the site just before it shut down. The resulting 650 Gigabyte bittorrent file is the digital Pompeii that is the subject of an interactive excavation that allows you to wander through an episode of recent online history.
The Deleted City is a digital archaeology of the world wide web as it exploded into the 21st century. At that time the web was often described as an enormous digital library that you could visit or contribute to by building a homepage. The early citizens of the net (or netizens) took their netizenship serious, and built homepages about themselves and subjects they were experts in.
These pioneers found their brave new world at Geocities, a free webhosting provider that was modelled after a city and where you could get a free "piece of land" to build your digital home in a certain neighbourhood based on the subject of your homepage. Heartland was – as a neigbourhood for all things rural – by far the largest, but there were neighbourhoods for fashion, arts and far east related topics to name just a few. Around the turn of the century, Geocities had tens of millions of "homesteaders" as the digital tennants were called and was bought by Yahoo for three and a half billion dollars. Ten years later in 2009, as other metaphores of the internet (such as the social network) had taken over, and the homesteaders had left their properties vacant after migrating to Facebook, Geocities was shut down and deleted.
In an heroic effort to preserve 10 years of collaborative work by 35 million people, the Archive Team made a backup of the site just before it shut down. The resulting 650 Gigabyte bittorrent file is the digital Pompeii that is the subject of an interactive excavation that allows you to wander through an episode of recent online history.
Interactive visualization for American artist James Turrell.
Deep inside Arizona's painted desert, lies Roden Crater, an extinct volcanic cinder cone. It is the site of a monumental artwork by James Turrell. Over the last 30 years, Turrell, famous for his installations concerning the perception of light, transformed the crater's eye into a naked-eye observatory that will eventually consist of 20 spaces each constructed to allow the observation of a specific portion of the sky or celestial event.
The Interactive Celestial Map I made is part of the artists website and visualizes the relation between the sky above Roden Crater and the alignment of the skyspaces created by the artist. The interactive module shows the sky and the arrangement of the sun, the moon and the stars above Roden Crater at the current time displayed over a map of the crater.
Dragging a circular slider around the visualization allows you to go back and forth in time and observe how the celestial bodies align with the observation spaces in the crater at different points in time. The sun and moon rise and set, stars and planets move across the night sky and the summer an winter solstices mark the moments where the sun aligns with an opening in a space and projects it's image on a precisely positioned surface.
An auto-play button animates the sky in fast forward while a calendar allows you to see the sky at a specific date in the past or future.
The website was launched together with the opening of James Turrell: A Retrospective at the Los Angeles County Museum of Modern art.
Interactive visualization for American artist James Turrell.
Deep inside Arizona's painted desert, lies Roden Crater, an extinct volcanic cinder cone. It is the site of a monumental artwork by James Turrell. Over the last 30 years, Turrell, famous for his installations concerning the perception of light, transformed the crater's eye into a naked-eye observatory that will eventually consist of 20 spaces each constructed to allow the observation of a specific portion of the sky or celestial event.
The Interactive Celestial Map I made is part of the artists website and visualizes the relation between the sky above Roden Crater and the alignment of the skyspaces created by the artist. The interactive module shows the sky and the arrangement of the sun, the moon and the stars above Roden Crater at the current time displayed over a map of the crater.
Dragging a circular slider around the visualization allows you to go back and forth in time and observe how the celestial bodies align with the observation spaces in the crater at different points in time. The sun and moon rise and set, stars and planets move across the night sky and the summer an winter solstices mark the moments where the sun aligns with an opening in a space and projects it's image on a precisely positioned surface.
An auto-play button animates the sky in fast forward while a calendar allows you to see the sky at a specific date in the past or future.
The website was launched together with the opening of James Turrell: A Retrospective at the Los Angeles County Museum of Modern art.
First Prize
An interactive datavisualization on 19.000 square feet of digital signboard on Times Square.
In March of 2002 NASA launched the GRACE mission. It consists of two satellites, designed to measure and map the Earth's gravity fields. Each month the two satellites complete a full scan of the earth, allowing scientists to study how variations in the earth's gravity fields — from which changes in groundwater levels can be derived — are developing over time.
This 30 second data visualization uses the measurements collected by the GRACE satellites over a period of 10 years to show seasonal and longterm changes in groundwater levels. The Nasdaq screen shows a map of the world through the eyes of GRACE, a topography made of measurement data. It shows the yearly cycle of groundwater depletion and replenishment, the rainy seasons in the Amazon and parts of the world suffering from yearly droughts. These measurements allow us to see this natural spectacle on a global scale for the first time. However, they also reveal that some areas show a steady decline in groundwater levels. These longterm changes in groundwater levels are indicated both on the map and on the narrow but very high screen of the Reuters building, where groundwater levels in several key areas are visualized as a virtual gauging rod. It shows that while some areas have been able to reverse the trend of declining groundwater levels, others show a sharp decline starting from the 1960's.
The aim of this visualization is to show on one hand the beauty and overwhelming complexity of the natural cycle of wet and dry seasons, and on the other hand highlight the challenge of carefully managing our use of groundwater.
An interactive feature allows the audience to engage with the visualization by adding their own city to a srcrolling ticker of historic groundwater levels across the world using a mobile application. The website headsup2012.com keeps an archive of all submitted cities.
The project was covered by The New York Times, Forbes, Fast Company, Infosthetics, NASA and National Geographic among others.
An interview about this project has been published by The Smithsonian
An interactive datavisualization on 19.000 square feet of digital signboard on Times Square.
In March of 2002 NASA launched the GRACE mission. It consists of two satellites, designed to measure and map the Earth's gravity fields. Each month the two satellites complete a full scan of the earth, allowing scientists to study how variations in the earth's gravity fields — from which changes in groundwater levels can be derived — are developing over time.
This 30 second data visualization uses the measurements collected by the GRACE satellites over a period of 10 years to show seasonal and longterm changes in groundwater levels. The Nasdaq screen shows a map of the world through the eyes of GRACE, a topography made of measurement data. It shows the yearly cycle of groundwater depletion and replenishment, the rainy seasons in the Amazon and parts of the world suffering from yearly droughts. These measurements allow us to see this natural spectacle on a global scale for the first time. However, they also reveal that some areas show a steady decline in groundwater levels. These longterm changes in groundwater levels are indicated both on the map and on the narrow but very high screen of the Reuters building, where groundwater levels in several key areas are visualized as a virtual gauging rod. It shows that while some areas have been able to reverse the trend of declining groundwater levels, others show a sharp decline starting from the 1960's.
The aim of this visualization is to show on one hand the beauty and overwhelming complexity of the natural cycle of wet and dry seasons, and on the other hand highlight the challenge of carefully managing our use of groundwater.
An interactive feature allows the audience to engage with the visualization by adding their own city to a srcrolling ticker of historic groundwater levels across the world using a mobile application. The website headsup2012.com keeps an archive of all submitted cities.
The project was covered by The New York Times, Forbes, Fast Company, Infosthetics, NASA and National Geographic among others.
An interview about this project has been published by The Smithsonian
2012 Finalist
The Deleted City is a digital archaeology of the world wide web as it exploded into the 21st century. At that time the web was often described as an enormous digital library that you could visit or contribute to by building a homepage. The early citizens of the net (or netizens) took their netizenship serious, and built homepages about themselves and subjects they were experts in.
These pioneers found their brave new world at Geocities, a free webhosting provider that was modelled after a city and where you could get a free "piece of land" to build your digital home in a certain neighbourhood based on the subject of your homepage. Heartland was – as a neigbourhood for all things rural – by far the largest, but there were neighbourhoods for fashion, arts and far east related topics to name just a few. Around the turn of the century, Geocities had tens of millions of "homesteaders" as the digital tennants were called and was bought by Yahoo for three and a half billion dollars. Ten years later in 2009, as other metaphores of the internet (such as the social network) had taken over, and the homesteaders had left their properties vacant after migrating to Facebook, Geocities was shut down and deleted.
In an heroic effort to preserve 10 years of collaborative work by 35 million people, the Archive Team made a backup of the site just before it shut down. The resulting 650 Gigabyte bittorrent file is the digital Pompeii that is the subject of an interactive excavation that allows you to wander through an episode of recent online history.
The Deleted City is a digital archaeology of the world wide web as it exploded into the 21st century. At that time the web was often described as an enormous digital library that you could visit or contribute to by building a homepage. The early citizens of the net (or netizens) took their netizenship serious, and built homepages about themselves and subjects they were experts in.
These pioneers found their brave new world at Geocities, a free webhosting provider that was modelled after a city and where you could get a free "piece of land" to build your digital home in a certain neighbourhood based on the subject of your homepage. Heartland was – as a neigbourhood for all things rural – by far the largest, but there were neighbourhoods for fashion, arts and far east related topics to name just a few. Around the turn of the century, Geocities had tens of millions of "homesteaders" as the digital tennants were called and was bought by Yahoo for three and a half billion dollars. Ten years later in 2009, as other metaphores of the internet (such as the social network) had taken over, and the homesteaders had left their properties vacant after migrating to Facebook, Geocities was shut down and deleted.
In an heroic effort to preserve 10 years of collaborative work by 35 million people, the Archive Team made a backup of the site just before it shut down. The resulting 650 Gigabyte bittorrent file is the digital Pompeii that is the subject of an interactive excavation that allows you to wander through an episode of recent online history.
Atlas of Pentecostalism is a dynamic online database, which visually maps the growth of global Pentecostalism as a diverse and networked religion. The database uses global crowdsourcing, big data, cinematography, interviews and academic collaborations to provide an independent perspective on Pentecostalism as it evolves. The database expands with time and can also be ordered as an eBook or print-on-demand book, which freezes the dynamic data at that moment.
Each day, a new version of the atlas is computed by a computer program and uploaded to the website. The book contains a frozen version of the database, including all the maps, transcripts of the interviews and the entire visual database. This unique, real-time and growing book is an expanding record of the fastest growing religion in the world.
While the book provides a global view of Pentecostalism, the film Great Expectations zooms in to one church in Lagos, Nigeria. Rather then telling a story, the split screen documentary allows you to experience the emotional appeal and exuberant nature of Pentecostal worship. The film, which has no beginning and no end loops continuously, and takes you to a new place each time you load the page.
Each scene in the film has been tagged with keywords. Keywords allow for matches between a scene and specific items in the database; images, maps or parts of an interview that relate to that scene.
These links allow you to explore the database and move back and forth between the film and other parts of the website. As the database continues to grow the relations between the film, and the database will change from day to day.
The same principle is applied to the interviews. allowing for links between the interviews and other items in the database and between the interviews themselves.
While the database grows, relations between the various items in the database will continue to change, the book will grow and this website will give new perspectives on the fastest growing religion in world.
The project has been supported by the Pulitzer Center (U.S.A.) and Mediafonds (NL)
Atlas of Pentecostalism is a dynamic online database, which visually maps the growth of global Pentecostalism as a diverse and networked religion. The database uses global crowdsourcing, big data, cinematography, interviews and academic collaborations to provide an independent perspective on Pentecostalism as it evolves. The database expands with time and can also be ordered as an eBook or print-on-demand book, which freezes the dynamic data at that moment.
Each day, a new version of the atlas is computed by a computer program and uploaded to the website. The book contains a frozen version of the database, including all the maps, transcripts of the interviews and the entire visual database. This unique, real-time and growing book is an expanding record of the fastest growing religion in the world.
While the book provides a global view of Pentecostalism, the film Great Expectations zooms in to one church in Lagos, Nigeria. Rather then telling a story, the split screen documentary allows you to experience the emotional appeal and exuberant nature of Pentecostal worship. The film, which has no beginning and no end loops continuously, and takes you to a new place each time you load the page.
Each scene in the film has been tagged with keywords. Keywords allow for matches between a scene and specific items in the database; images, maps or parts of an interview that relate to that scene.
These links allow you to explore the database and move back and forth between the film and other parts of the website. As the database continues to grow the relations between the film, and the database will change from day to day.
The same principle is applied to the interviews. allowing for links between the interviews and other items in the database and between the interviews themselves.
While the database grows, relations between the various items in the database will continue to change, the book will grow and this website will give new perspectives on the fastest growing religion in world.
The project has been supported by the Pulitzer Center (U.S.A.) and Mediafonds (NL)
Het Nieuwe Instituut’s archive is an extensive collection of objects, drawings and documentation related to the history of architecture in the Netherlands. Packed in boxes and sorted on shelves, the objects offer us a glimpse behind the scenes of architecture and the evolution of the Dutch urban landscape. Hidden in all these boxes lies a world of ideas: about forms, materials, people and the environment, a world of possibilities, successes and failures. A world that doesn’t reveal itself just like that. For anyone familiar with the structure of this archive it is a well-organised database of shelves and volumes. For the layperson it is an endless series of boxes.
The link between the boxes and the information they contain comes in the form of a digital file. You enter a search term in to the computer and the programme directs you to the right box. That’s assuming that you know what you’re looking for. For anyone with no knowledge whatsoever of architectural history there’s not much the computer can do to help you.
Data Volume Explorer is a proposal for a spatial, interactive search machine for anyone who doesn’t know what they’re looking for. The installation allows the user to play with the archive. Instead of boxes in endless rows of archive cupboards, the boxes can be arranged in endless configurations; chronologically, by architect, by format, or materials used. A gigantic construction of boxes with drawings, or a seemingly never-ending landscape of boxes full of architectural models.
The space in which this experiment takes place is a virtual one. With Virtual Reality glasses the visitor can step out of the physical environment and enter the virtual archive. To make the transition clear the installation takes the form of a small space built from real archive boxes. As soon as you put the glasses on you see a virtual version of the same space.
Enter a search term and the space transforms in to a new environment based on a new configuration. You search using a (virtual) keyboard. As soon as you type a letter a list appears with possible search terms. By combining search terms you can filter the results, from the very broad to the very specific. The result could be a landscape of boxes with pencil drawings that reaches as far as the eye can see, or that one box full of sketches of Rotterdam’s Blaaktoren (The Pencil). If you linger at a certain box, it can be opened, and then the contents appear in the image. If you look away you return to the spatial environment. The starting point for the installation is the discovery of the archive. From very broad and almost random, to very specific. You can sort very specifically, with the box next to you full of drawings by the same architectural office, in the same city, or a model of the same material.
Het Nieuwe Instituut’s archive is an extensive collection of objects, drawings and documentation related to the history of architecture in the Netherlands. Packed in boxes and sorted on shelves, the objects offer us a glimpse behind the scenes of architecture and the evolution of the Dutch urban landscape. Hidden in all these boxes lies a world of ideas: about forms, materials, people and the environment, a world of possibilities, successes and failures. A world that doesn’t reveal itself just like that. For anyone familiar with the structure of this archive it is a well-organised database of shelves and volumes. For the layperson it is an endless series of boxes.
The link between the boxes and the information they contain comes in the form of a digital file. You enter a search term in to the computer and the programme directs you to the right box. That’s assuming that you know what you’re looking for. For anyone with no knowledge whatsoever of architectural history there’s not much the computer can do to help you.
Data Volume Explorer is a proposal for a spatial, interactive search machine for anyone who doesn’t know what they’re looking for. The installation allows the user to play with the archive. Instead of boxes in endless rows of archive cupboards, the boxes can be arranged in endless configurations; chronologically, by architect, by format, or materials used. A gigantic construction of boxes with drawings, or a seemingly never-ending landscape of boxes full of architectural models.
The space in which this experiment takes place is a virtual one. With Virtual Reality glasses the visitor can step out of the physical environment and enter the virtual archive. To make the transition clear the installation takes the form of a small space built from real archive boxes. As soon as you put the glasses on you see a virtual version of the same space.
Enter a search term and the space transforms in to a new environment based on a new configuration. You search using a (virtual) keyboard. As soon as you type a letter a list appears with possible search terms. By combining search terms you can filter the results, from the very broad to the very specific. The result could be a landscape of boxes with pencil drawings that reaches as far as the eye can see, or that one box full of sketches of Rotterdam’s Blaaktoren (The Pencil). If you linger at a certain box, it can be opened, and then the contents appear in the image. If you look away you return to the spatial environment. The starting point for the installation is the discovery of the archive. From very broad and almost random, to very specific. You can sort very specifically, with the box next to you full of drawings by the same architectural office, in the same city, or a model of the same material.
Datavisualization for the Beijing Media Art Biennale 2016. The interactive visualization shows the curatorial framework and provides a theoretical and scientific context for the artworks on display. Embedded in the program as both a web-app and an installation, the visualization functions as integral part of the exhibition.
Datavisualization for the Beijing Media Art Biennale 2016. The interactive visualization shows the curatorial framework and provides a theoretical and scientific context for the artworks on display. Embedded in the program as both a web-app and an installation, the visualization functions as integral part of the exhibition.
Research for a data visualization. Taking six hours to complete, this four color fine liner plot is the tactile outcome of a processing sketch that aims to visualize various international broadcasting networks.
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Research for a data visualization. Taking six hours to complete, this four color fine liner plot is the tactile outcome of a processing sketch that aims to visualize various international broadcasting networks.
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Award 2009
The Website Onder-anderen is part of an Art in public space project by Huijbers en Agelink (Germa Huijbers en Carolina Agelink) in a neighbourhood of Delft. The artwork was developed in close collaboration with the residents with the goal of disclosing their (childhood) memories.
The resulting image archive has been made accessible by developing a website and 30 aluminum photo signs that are permanently displayed in the street and act as a reference to specific themes within the website. The signs are therefor a physical representation of the structure of the online archive, and at the same time, encourage people to visit the website. Apart from the geographic approach, the website provides a chronologic perspective. When switching between these views, a swarm of hundreds of images moves from their geographic position to their chronologic position.
The Website Onder-anderen is part of an Art in public space project by Huijbers en Agelink (Germa Huijbers en Carolina Agelink) in a neighbourhood of Delft. The artwork was developed in close collaboration with the residents with the goal of disclosing their (childhood) memories.
The resulting image archive has been made accessible by developing a website and 30 aluminum photo signs that are permanently displayed in the street and act as a reference to specific themes within the website. The signs are therefor a physical representation of the structure of the online archive, and at the same time, encourage people to visit the website. Apart from the geographic approach, the website provides a chronologic perspective. When switching between these views, a swarm of hundreds of images moves from their geographic position to their chronologic position.
Project on the convergence of printed and digital books.
Over the last decade several attempts have been made to make the information stored in books available on the internet, some proprietary some open source. Even though some of these attempts have been very successful, they usually conform to the old idea of the library in digital form. As long as these works are being stored online, and printed for reading, the concept is simply an evolutionary process in production and distribution, most likely to be taken advantage of by the bookmaking industry in the form of print on demand. My research will focus on the new paradigm of the non-physical book existing in a uniform database environment. The absence of physical limitations and the uniformity of the structure in which the book exists, opens up new ways of thinking about the book. The book no longer starts at the first page, and ends at the last, it can be a collection of quotes, pages or chapters from different books in the library. Like a DJ mixes records, readers or lecturers can recompose text by making connections or by sampling books. The uniform structure allows us to add data to the book, making it more valuable ...
Project on the convergence of printed and digital books.
Over the last decade several attempts have been made to make the information stored in books available on the internet, some proprietary some open source. Even though some of these attempts have been very successful, they usually conform to the old idea of the library in digital form. As long as these works are being stored online, and printed for reading, the concept is simply an evolutionary process in production and distribution, most likely to be taken advantage of by the bookmaking industry in the form of print on demand. My research will focus on the new paradigm of the non-physical book existing in a uniform database environment. The absence of physical limitations and the uniformity of the structure in which the book exists, opens up new ways of thinking about the book. The book no longer starts at the first page, and ends at the last, it can be a collection of quotes, pages or chapters from different books in the library. Like a DJ mixes records, readers or lecturers can recompose text by making connections or by sampling books. The uniform structure allows us to add data to the book, making it more valuable ...
There are many undefined places in the city. Development plans, vacant buildings and public policy leave many buildings and areas in a long-term state of transition. A state that is often prolonged by economic downturn. The disparity between a place's current state and it's planned future often spans many years and many square meters. Time and space the Transitiekaart (Transition Map) aims to visualize and make public in order to facilitate the use of these places for cultural, social and artistic purposes. In doing so it's organizers hope to provide a new context for short term research and (urban-) development that contributes to better urban quality and public participation. The Transitiekaart shows places in the city that are in transition and matches them to a database of project proposals. The result is a selection of possible areas and buildings that may be suitable location for a project.
To make sure projects are socially and economically embedded in their environments, historic and statistical cartographic layers provide context for determining the best location for a specific project. Once a project is matched to a location, the Transitiekaart will provide legal templates to speed up the process of realizing a project.
There are many undefined places in the city. Development plans, vacant buildings and public policy leave many buildings and areas in a long-term state of transition. A state that is often prolonged by economic downturn. The disparity between a place's current state and it's planned future often spans many years and many square meters. Time and space the Transitiekaart (Transition Map) aims to visualize and make public in order to facilitate the use of these places for cultural, social and artistic purposes. In doing so it's organizers hope to provide a new context for short term research and (urban-) development that contributes to better urban quality and public participation. The Transitiekaart shows places in the city that are in transition and matches them to a database of project proposals. The result is a selection of possible areas and buildings that may be suitable location for a project.
To make sure projects are socially and economically embedded in their environments, historic and statistical cartographic layers provide context for determining the best location for a specific project. Once a project is matched to a location, the Transitiekaart will provide legal templates to speed up the process of realizing a project.
Award 2009
Immersive media theatre for Rijkswaterstaat LEF, a research and innovation platform for the Dutch Directorate-General for Public Works and Water Management. The media theatre is a space in which walls and floor consist of projection surfaces.
By running specific interactive and audiovisual applications the entire space can be transformed to fit any occasion. We have been asked to develop a series of audiovisual and interactive applications to be used in the discussion and decisionmaking process. For this we developed a total of nine applications, one of which is a interactive cartographic simulation giving a variety of perspectives on the Netherlands by using the vast amount of cartographic material Rijkswaterstaat keeps. Another example is a ad-hoc social network in which datavisualizations are generated in real-time, based on questions answered by participants with a handheld computer The applications use a projection surface consisting of a total of 15 projectors and 7.1 surround sound.
Immersive media theatre for Rijkswaterstaat LEF, a research and innovation platform for the Dutch Directorate-General for Public Works and Water Management. The media theatre is a space in which walls and floor consist of projection surfaces.
By running specific interactive and audiovisual applications the entire space can be transformed to fit any occasion. We have been asked to develop a series of audiovisual and interactive applications to be used in the discussion and decisionmaking process. For this we developed a total of nine applications, one of which is a interactive cartographic simulation giving a variety of perspectives on the Netherlands by using the vast amount of cartographic material Rijkswaterstaat keeps. Another example is a ad-hoc social network in which datavisualizations are generated in real-time, based on questions answered by participants with a handheld computer The applications use a projection surface consisting of a total of 15 projectors and 7.1 surround sound.