information aesthetics

physical 3D landscape terrain models generated by datasets relating to the frequency & position of urban crimes. the precise statistics are provided by the police. each individual incident adds to the height of the model, forming a mountainous terrain. the resulting "Mountain Fear" objects do not describe an ideal other-worldly space separated from lived reality, but conversely describe in relentless detail the actuality of life on the city streets.

[link: abigailreynolds.com|thnkx Jack]

continue reading "London crime statistics sculpture" »

aesthetic & art & infographic & physical . comments (4)

a recent talk from Ben Fry at the See Conference ("Conference on
Visualization of Information"), showing a lot of older & a few new visualization works. in addition, there are videos of talks from the performance artist Zachary Lieberman, science fiction author Bruce Sterling & visualization researcher Frank van Ham of the IBM Visual Communication Lab.

you will need to visit the See Conference video collection website to watch the talks, as it (unfortunately) seems the videos cannot be embedded in 3rd party websites.

there is also a recent post on informationandvisualization.de describing a personal impression of the conference.

[link: see-conference.org (Ben Fry video) & see-conference.org (Frank van Ham talk) & see-conference.org (Zachary Lieberman talk)]

image taken from the see.conference flickr stream.

continue reading "Ben Fry conference talk" »

aesthetic & art & infovis . comments (1)

a continuous sequence of the comparative line graphs & related information returned by services like Google Trends. the art project from Martin John Callanan takes the content generated by types of "X vs. Y" search queries & reduces this visualization process to its most essential elements: search terms, frequency mentioned & a timeline, including "Bush vs Saddam", "past vs present vs future" or "criminal vs victim".

the viewer sits idly & watches the infographical animations plot out the ebb & flow (or lack thereof) of a series of search terms over the last 4 years, with all the passion of a market index board.

[link: greyisgood.eu|via serialconsign.com]

see also Google trends & Google frequency dot map.

continue reading "text trends" »

aesthetic & art & infographic . comments (10)

a beautiful infographic snapshot of contemporary teen life & the new media world, created by Matt Mason ('The Pirate's Dilemma') & Nicholas Felton (known from the yearly 'Felton Personal Annual Report').

[link: wetellstories.co.uk|via boingboing.net]

continue reading "infographic storytelling" »

aesthetic & art & infographic . comments (6)

a rather info-poetic music video directed by Edouard Salier (2006) for the song "I Want Love" from Jehro, available here.

[link: salier.info]

aesthetic & art & infographic . comments (1)

a lyrics & audio-reactive movie made with Processing based on audio by Goldfrapp ("Lovely Head") (mp3). the author's blog entry includes an interesting discussion how to efficiently time stamp beats & lyric events in audio tracks.

[link: flight404.com & vimeo.com]

aesthetic & art & infographic . comments (3)

a TED talk by Designer Jakob Trollback about the concept of a music video that is purely directed by the music itself: not driven by a concept, nor by a desire to build an image, but purely as an expression of a great song.

the song is "Moonlight in Glory," from David Byrne & Brian Eno's classic album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, remastered in 2006.

[link: ted.com]

aesthetic & art & infographic . comments (6)

an amazing pop-up book with embedded smart, paper-based elements designed by Marion Bataille. each of the 26 dimensional letters move & change when turning the pages. for instance, the C turns into D, M stands at attention & X becomes Y with a flick of the wrist.

you can pre-order the book here.

[via todayandtomorrow.net]

aesthetic & art & infographic . comments (0)