On Christmas Eve 2019 the University of Maastricht (NL) was hit by a severe cyberattack. A few weeks before, an employee of the university had accidentally clicked a link in a phishing mail that linked to an excel file called schedule.xls. This file installed the SDBBot malware on the employee’s laptop. Within a few days the attacker was able to access and spread across the University’s local network. Using a so called EternalBlue exploit on an outdated server the attacker was able to get full access to the central system. On december 23rd 2019 at 18:52 the attacker had installed ransomware that encrypted all files on 267 of the University’s servers containing everything from student affairs, to payroll to researchers and phd’s project data. A ransom letter was left in a .txt file demanding € 200.000 in bitcoin.
Unable to function, the University decided to pay and take the whole process public by publishing the digital forensic report and hosting a symposium to educate the public about the course of events.While the attack has had a profound impact on the University, the staff and the students, there is little that remains of the event other than a sealed off laptop with a sticker on it that reads “Patient zero. Do not connect to the network”.
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Eternal Blue is a monument to the events of 2019 as well as a window into an invisible dimension of reality. Each day the University’s firewall intercepts tens of thousands of malicious packets. Over the course of 24 hours these packets reveal the patterns of a global digital tide with attacks originating from different parts of the world in correlation with day and night rhythms. Each intercepted package is logged and visualised as a coloured pixel. Together they form a slowly rotating sphere that represents 24 hours from top to bottom where the color represents the country of origin. A period of continued attacks from a specific country appears as a coloured band that starts at the top slowly moving down. Every day reveals a new pattern based on the origin and intensity of the attacks.
While one day the sphere may be predominantly blue with a few bands of color, the next day it may be mostly green with a few specks of yellow and red. As such it resembles a contemporary clock that measures the passing of time by the intensity of digital attacks. It is a the invisible but very real background against which the University functions as an open and international institution.
On Christmas Eve 2019 the University of Maastricht (NL) was hit by a severe cyberattack. A few weeks before, an employee of the university had accidentally clicked a link in a phishing mail that linked to an excel file called schedule.xls. This file installed the SDBBot malware on the employee’s laptop. Within a few days the attacker was able to access and spread across the University’s local network. Using a so called EternalBlue exploit on an outdated server the attacker was able to get full access to the central system. On december 23rd 2019 at 18:52 the attacker had installed ransomware that encrypted all files on 267 of the University’s servers containing everything from student affairs, to payroll to researchers and phd’s project data. A ransom letter was left in a .txt file demanding € 200.000 in bitcoin.
Unable to function, the University decided to pay and take the whole process public by publishing the digital forensic report and hosting a symposium to educate the public about the course of events.While the attack has had a profound impact on the University, the staff and the students, there is little that remains of the event other than a sealed off laptop with a sticker on it that reads “Patient zero. Do not connect to the network”.
$
Eternal Blue is a monument to the events of 2019 as well as a window into an invisible dimension of reality. Each day the University’s firewall intercepts tens of thousands of malicious packets. Over the course of 24 hours these packets reveal the patterns of a global digital tide with attacks originating from different parts of the world in correlation with day and night rhythms. Each intercepted package is logged and visualised as a coloured pixel. Together they form a slowly rotating sphere that represents 24 hours from top to bottom where the color represents the country of origin. A period of continued attacks from a specific country appears as a coloured band that starts at the top slowly moving down. Every day reveals a new pattern based on the origin and intensity of the attacks.
While one day the sphere may be predominantly blue with a few bands of color, the next day it may be mostly green with a few specks of yellow and red. As such it resembles a contemporary clock that measures the passing of time by the intensity of digital attacks. It is a the invisible but very real background against which the University functions as an open and international institution.
When a computer looks at the world, what does it “see”? This installation lets the audience look at 558 episodes of VPRO Tegenlicht (Dutch Future Affairs Documentary series) through the eyes of a computer vision Neural Network. The installation employs an object detection algorithm that has been trained on Imagenet data across three categories; people, artefacts and natural objects. These categories are the "eyes" through which the algorithm observes the archive.
By choosing an eye, the user chooses a narrow perspective; The eye trained on people can only see people. With these eyes, the algorithm can identify between 30 and 60 different classes; men, women, children, but also politicians, economists and "bad people". These classes follow the structure of the imagenet dataset and range from obvious and utilitarian to absurd and problematic. As such they highlight the inevitable cultural perspectives embedded in the process of computer vision; from data collection to annotation and categorization. After choosing an eye and browsing through its different classes the user can set the confidence threshold, a value that sets how "confident" the algorithm needs to be for a result to appear. By playing with this value, the audience can explore the limits of the algorithm; where does it draw the line between a man and a woman? By exposing these choices; the eye, the class and the confidence, the installation allows for a more intuitive relation to A.I.$One that does not present A.I. as an outcome or an answer, but as a dialog between man and machine. Sometimes powerful and revealing, but also fallible and coloured.
After training the algorithm it has observed over 400 hours of video and detected more than 1 million objects. These objects are stored in a database as short clips of bounding boxes of ever changing scale and position. The installation presents these objects both in a linear way, where the bounding boxes are shown within the frame of the film as well as a non linear way, where the objects exist as autonomous entities, isolated from the original frame.
From February 20th to June 26th 2022 at Het Nieuwe Instituut Rotterdam
Installation Design and Production: Richard Vijgen | Curatorial Team: Het Nieuwe Instituut, VPRO Tegenlicht (Bregtje Van Der Haak), Richard Vijgen, Koehorst in ’t Veld | Exhibition Design: Koehorst in 't Veld | Programme Manager: Olle Lundin | Production: Floor Berkhout, Babette Zijlstra | Sound Design: Eusebi Jucglà | Supported by Het Nieuwe Instituut, VPRO, Mondriaan Fonds, Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid
When a computer looks at the world, what does it “see”? This installation lets the audience look at 558 episodes of VPRO Tegenlicht (Dutch Future Affairs Documentary series) through the eyes of a computer vision Neural Network. The installation employs an object detection algorithm that has been trained on Imagenet data across three categories; people, artefacts and natural objects. These categories are the "eyes" through which the algorithm observes the archive.
By choosing an eye, the user chooses a narrow perspective; The eye trained on people can only see people. With these eyes, the algorithm can identify between 30 and 60 different classes; men, women, children, but also politicians, economists and "bad people". These classes follow the structure of the imagenet dataset and range from obvious and utilitarian to absurd and problematic. As such they highlight the inevitable cultural perspectives embedded in the process of computer vision; from data collection to annotation and categorization. After choosing an eye and browsing through its different classes the user can set the confidence threshold, a value that sets how "confident" the algorithm needs to be for a result to appear. By playing with this value, the audience can explore the limits of the algorithm; where does it draw the line between a man and a woman? By exposing these choices; the eye, the class and the confidence, the installation allows for a more intuitive relation to A.I.$One that does not present A.I. as an outcome or an answer, but as a dialog between man and machine. Sometimes powerful and revealing, but also fallible and coloured.
After training the algorithm it has observed over 400 hours of video and detected more than 1 million objects. These objects are stored in a database as short clips of bounding boxes of ever changing scale and position. The installation presents these objects both in a linear way, where the bounding boxes are shown within the frame of the film as well as a non linear way, where the objects exist as autonomous entities, isolated from the original frame.
From February 20th to June 26th 2022 at Het Nieuwe Instituut Rotterdam
Installation Design and Production: Richard Vijgen | Curatorial Team: Het Nieuwe Instituut, VPRO Tegenlicht (Bregtje Van Der Haak), Richard Vijgen, Koehorst in ’t Veld | Exhibition Design: Koehorst in 't Veld | Programme Manager: Olle Lundin | Production: Floor Berkhout, Babette Zijlstra | Sound Design: Eusebi Jucglà | Supported by Het Nieuwe Instituut, VPRO, Mondriaan Fonds, Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid
Atmospheric Lighthouse is a visual interface between the city and it’s environment, a visualization of the interaction between the atmosphere and the city. As the wind blows fresh air into the streets it carries dust and sand from the desert, moisture from the sea or cool air from the mountains, linking the city with places hundreds of kilometers away. The flow or air creates an Urban Canyon Effect as it bounces off and around high buildings. It absorbs the particles created by burning fossil fuels and carries them out of the city.$This complex interaction between air flow and the built environment is largely invisible but fundamental to urban life. Atmospheric Lighthouse captures and analyses realtime atmospheric data to visualize the flow of air around the skin of Torre Glòries using a 43 x 120 pixel grid. Wind speed and direction result in ever changing patterns while measurements of CO2, small particles (PM10, PM2.5) and NOx affect the color of the air flows.
Coding: Richard Vijgen and Eusebi Jucglà
Atmospheric Lighthouse is a visual interface between the city and it’s environment, a visualization of the interaction between the atmosphere and the city. As the wind blows fresh air into the streets it carries dust and sand from the desert, moisture from the sea or cool air from the mountains, linking the city with places hundreds of kilometers away. The flow or air creates an Urban Canyon Effect as it bounces off and around high buildings. It absorbs the particles created by burning fossil fuels and carries them out of the city.$This complex interaction between air flow and the built environment is largely invisible but fundamental to urban life. Atmospheric Lighthouse captures and analyses realtime atmospheric data to visualize the flow of air around the skin of Torre Glòries using a 43 x 120 pixel grid. Wind speed and direction result in ever changing patterns while measurements of CO2, small particles (PM10, PM2.5) and NOx affect the color of the air flows.
Coding: Richard Vijgen and Eusebi Jucglà
A data-driven portrait of Barcelona that visualises the city as an interconnected flow system of human and non-human actors.
Hyperview Barcelona is one part of Mirador Torre Glories, a permanent two part exhibition that connects the basement of the landmark Torre Glories with the 144 meters high observation deck. Each part gives a different perspective on the city. While the observation deck focusses on the visible, combining a spectacular view with an immersive installation by Tomás Saraceno, the basement is dedicated to the invisible; the city as a network of people, materials, energy and biology.
Rhythms is a holographic installation that visualises a realtime perspective on the city by combining 10 different live data sources ranging from from weather stations, air quality and traffic sensors to electromagnetic signals and lidar data into a highly dynamic story narrated by an A.I. voice.
The story consists of three chapters; flow, pulse and vibrations. Chapter one focusses on the interaction between air flow and the city grid$by using realtime wind data to simulate the urban canyon effect (how air flows through a city) and its effects on trees. Chapter two uses realtime traffic data to visualise the pulse of the city through movement of people and goods. Chapter tree looks at the flow of information through the city as electromagnetic vibrations. It uses a SDR receiver to scan the electromagnetic spectrum in real time and uses cell tower data to transform a high resolution Lidar map as well as various API’s to monitor recent usage of social media in the city.
Combined with a data driven musical score by John Talabot, the result is a 7:30 minute volumetric composition that changes with the rhythm of the city.
Design and Production: Richard Vijgen
Coding: Richard Vijgen and Eusebi Jucglà
Music: John Talabot
Commissioned by: Mediapro Exhibitions
Permanent exhibtion from May 2022
A data-driven portrait of Barcelona that visualises the city as an interconnected flow system of human and non-human actors.
Hyperview Barcelona is one part of Mirador Torre Glories, a permanent two part exhibition that connects the basement of the landmark Torre Glories with the 144 meters high observation deck. Each part gives a different perspective on the city. While the observation deck focusses on the visible, combining a spectacular view with an immersive installation by Tomás Saraceno, the basement is dedicated to the invisible; the city as a network of people, materials, energy and biology.
Rhythms is a holographic installation that visualises a realtime perspective on the city by combining 10 different live data sources ranging from from weather stations, air quality and traffic sensors to electromagnetic signals and lidar data into a highly dynamic story narrated by an A.I. voice.
The story consists of three chapters; flow, pulse and vibrations. Chapter one focusses on the interaction between air flow and the city grid$by using realtime wind data to simulate the urban canyon effect (how air flows through a city) and its effects on trees. Chapter two uses realtime traffic data to visualise the pulse of the city through movement of people and goods. Chapter tree looks at the flow of information through the city as electromagnetic vibrations. It uses a SDR receiver to scan the electromagnetic spectrum in real time and uses cell tower data to transform a high resolution Lidar map as well as various API’s to monitor recent usage of social media in the city.
Combined with a data driven musical score by John Talabot, the result is a 7:30 minute volumetric composition that changes with the rhythm of the city.
Design and Production: Richard Vijgen
Coding: Richard Vijgen and Eusebi Jucglà
Music: John Talabot
Commissioned by: Mediapro Exhibitions
Permanent exhibtion from May 2022
2020
Hertzian Landscapes is a live visualization of the radio spectrum. Unlike visible light, waves in the radio spectrum cannot be perceived by us directly yet this space is teeming with human activity. Hertzian Landscapes employs a digital receiver to scan large swaths of radio spectrum in near real-time and visualizes thousands of signals into a panoramic electromagnetic landscape. Users can zoom in to specific frequencies by positioning themselves in front of the panorama as if controlling a radio tuner with their body, giving them a sense of walking through the spectrum.
From radio broadcasts to weather satellites and from medical implants to aeronautical navigation,$the radio spectrum is divided into hundreds of designated slices each tied to a specific application. Based on a localized frequency database that describes these slices, signals are annotated to provide information about their theoretical type and application.
Hertzian Landscapes is supported by the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision and the Netherlands Creative Industries Fund.
2020 Lumen Prize 3D and Interactive 2021 S+T+ARTS STS Award
Hertzian Landscapes is a live visualization of the radio spectrum. Unlike visible light, waves in the radio spectrum cannot be perceived by us directly yet this space is teeming with human activity. Hertzian Landscapes employs a digital receiver to scan large swaths of radio spectrum in near real-time and visualizes thousands of signals into a panoramic electromagnetic landscape. Users can zoom in to specific frequencies by positioning themselves in front of the panorama as if controlling a radio tuner with their body, giving them a sense of walking through the spectrum.
From radio broadcasts to weather satellites and from medical implants to aeronautical navigation,$the radio spectrum is divided into hundreds of designated slices each tied to a specific application. Based on a localized frequency database that describes these slices, signals are annotated to provide information about their theoretical type and application.
Hertzian Landscapes is supported by the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision and the Netherlands Creative Industries Fund.
2020 Lumen Prize 3D and Interactive 2021 S+T+ARTS STS Award
2019 Finalist
WiFi Impressionist is a field installation that draws electromagnetic landscapes inspired by the cityscapes of William Turner. The work consists of a directional antenna on a pan-tilt mechanism that listens for WiFi signals and builds a three dimensional model of the signals around it. From this model a viewport is selected that defines the perspective and the frame. Signals that are picked up within the frame are visualised as waves emitted from a specific origin and drawn using a mobile plotter.$The antenna and the plotter are both mounted on a tripod and can be placed in the field much like a painter would set up his easel. Once positioned and oriented a drawing becomes denser over time depending on the density of networks around it. Wherever there is a WiFi signal, the drawing will eventually fill the frame.
WiFi Impressionist is a field installation that draws electromagnetic landscapes inspired by the cityscapes of William Turner. The work consists of a directional antenna on a pan-tilt mechanism that listens for WiFi signals and builds a three dimensional model of the signals around it. From this model a viewport is selected that defines the perspective and the frame. Signals that are picked up within the frame are visualised as waves emitted from a specific origin and drawn using a mobile plotter.$The antenna and the plotter are both mounted on a tripod and can be placed in the field much like a painter would set up his easel. Once positioned and oriented a drawing becomes denser over time depending on the density of networks around it. Wherever there is a WiFi signal, the drawing will eventually fill the frame.
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[1] 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.$A site specific version of the app includes wired communication infrastructure embedded in the exhibition space. It's aim is to provide a comprehensive window into the infosphere.
[1]The infosphere refers to an interdependent environment, like a biosphere, that is populated by informational entities. While an example of the sphere of information is cyberspace, infospheres are not limited to purely online environments.
The infosphere[1] relies on an intricate network of signals, wired and wireless, that support it. We are completely surrounded by an invisible system of data cables and radio signals from access points, cell towers and overhead satellites. Our digital lives depend on these very physical systems for communication, observation and navigation.
The Architecture of Radio is a site-specific iPad application that visualizes this network of networks by reversing the ambient nature of the infosphere; hiding the visible while revealing the invisible technological landscape we interact with through our devices.
The architecture of radio app is a realtime, location based visualization of cell towers, wifi routers, communication, navigation and observation satellites and their signals.$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.
[1]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.
Exhibited at Centre Pompidou 2022
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. $Whenever data is transmitted on a channel, the controller sends a current to an array of thermal elements embedded in the tapestry, converting data into heat and activating a thermochromic yarn woven into the tapestry. Like a Shroud of Turin, streams of data transmitted through a space appear as visual traces from an invisible dimension that gradually form and dissolve.
Exhibited at Centre Pompidou 2022
The Deleted City is a digital archaeology of the world wide web as it exploded into the 21st century. At that time the web was often described as an enormous digital library that you could visit or contribute to by building a homepage. The early citizens of the net (or netizens) took their netizenship serious, and built homepages about themselves and subjects they were experts in. These pioneers found their brave new world at Geocities, a free webhosting provider that was modelled after a city and where you could get a free "piece of land" to build your digital home in a certain neighbourhood based on the subject of your homepage. Heartland was – as a neigbourhood for all things rural – by far the largest, but there were neighbourhoods for fashion, arts and far east related topics to name just a few.$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.
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.
Research for a data visualization. Taking six hours to complete, this four color fine liner plot$is the tactile outcome of a processing sketch that aims to visualize various international broadcasting networks.
Gutenberg on demand is a meta-library based on Project Gutenberg.org It is a representation of Project Gutenberg's entire catalogue and allows you to print any book from the Project Gutenberg archive as a physical codex book. All books are generatively designed in real time and change over time.$Users can select from a variety of formats and paper-types and choose a typeface and size. Once a book has been printed by a print on demand printer, it sent by mail.
Gutenberg on demand is a meta-library based on Project Gutenberg.org It is a representation of Project Gutenberg's entire catalogue and allows you to print any book from the Project Gutenberg archive as a physical codex book. All books are generatively designed in real time and change over time.$Users can select from a variety of formats and paper-types and choose a typeface and size. Once a book has been printed by a print on demand printer, it sent by mail.
