In the courtyard of the Museu Frederic Marés in Barcelona, IAAC planted DATA NET, an artificial tree, on the occasion of the Llum BCN 2014 Festival of Light. DATA NET was born next to existing trees to form an interactive mesh shading the museum patio.
2014
Data net
Year:
- 2014
Llum Festival Barcelona
Team
- Areti Markopoulou, Silvia Brandi, Luis Fraguada, Guillem Camprodon, Anastasia Pistofidou, Alexandre Dubor, Rodrigo Aguirre, Pablo Martinez.
In partnership with
- Fab Lab Barcelona
In collaboration with
- Relco Lighting
Photos
- Filippo Poli
THE CONCEPT – A tangible interaction of Citizens Data.
In a world with an increasing flow of information, we encounter a lack of tools and representations of the data that we generate every day. DATA NET is an artificial tree that forms an interactive mesh encompassing the visitor within the existing environment allowing the visualisation of the data they generate.
Cities are places where dense data is generated. The project proposed tools to allow cities to perform as organisms, processes and visualise the data generated within its fabric, and eventually become behavioural.
THE VISITOR EXPERIENCE – Read the data and interact with it.
One can see the installation illuminated, but can also find themselves, as a visitor, participating in the project. The intensity of light on the installation changes, reacting to the location and the density of the visitors through a series of sensors that track peoples movement.
Visitors are not only observers of a space, but participants in its creation, definition and variation.
THE TECHNICAL PRINCIPLE – Input: Motion tracking + Urban Sensor; Output: Controlled Light.
Using multiple video tracking sensors (Kinect) combined with a blob detection software, the exact position of people within the installation is tracked, generating local data. Data is then sent over UDP to a custom processing programme that, in return, controls each of the 100 LEDs – also custom made – through a DMX controlled. As the entire installation is produced by digital means, the output can be controlled, therefore allowing smooth interaction.
DATA NET is reflecting a living organism that moves and evolves according to the data generated by the public.