‘Form carries information’, were the words of Willem Flusser, the famous photographer. Nuage Vert, a collaboration of artists that try to interpret and present data in new ways, has taken the notion of Flusser to the urban playground. Since, ‘energy cannot be stored, producers across large geographical regions have to produce exactly the amount of energy that is being consumed right now, within micro-seconds’, using less energy, has a direct influence on the world. Strangely, it is nearly impossible to see how much an area or region ‘burns’ energy. Nuage Vert helped the capital city of Finland, Helsinki, to show how much energy is being used - in relation to the energy produced by a powerplant - in real time.
Visualizing data into the ‘real’ world can be a very powerful tool to make people aware of things that are otherwise written or paper or on a website. Using colors, moving images and physical objects work best in urban area’s. Aerophile, a company responsible for the ‘next-level’ air balloons has experimented with balloons to visualize the ambient air quality check out the Infostethics article on this awareness project.
Environmental visualizations of data for awareness have triggered a lot of great artists to present data on new ways. Personally, I’m very eager to contribute something to that movement. Therefore, Yuri Engelhardt, the data visualizing expert from the University of Amsterdam, Jaap Den Dulk from Hollandsehelden.tv and several other people who are interested, have started a small collective think-tank called ‘People-Planet-Graphics’. We are working on a website that will be our platform to help non-profit organizations use data visualizations in their quest for awareness. If you want to get involved, drop me a line. We’ll also attend ‘InfographICs 2009‘, March 20 in the city of Zeist. Among others; Nigel Holmes, Henk van Ess and Geoff McGhee from the NYTimes will be speaking… There are still some tickets left.
