Data provided by new technologies isn’t just good for marketers; it’s inspiring a new generation of digital artists determined to reshape the way we see the world.

WORDS AND IMAGES BY Aaron Koblin

Flight Patterns, 2005 Bicycle Built for Two Thousand, 2009

oints of light illuminate This is Flight Patterns, a visualization Robert Hodgin, who created the a dark screen, erupting based on airplane location data. It’s ‘Magnetosphere’ visualizer in iTunes, like digital fireworks. visually stunning, but it also tells which uses music as its data source. A clock counts down us something interesting about our Or David Bowen, who has created the night-time hours working life as a country. kinetic sculptures using wave data. And towards dawn. At 6am, Data analysis and visualization have Nicholas Felton, who tracks the data the darkness erupts into streaks of light become indispensable tools in science generated by his everyday activities chasing each other across the screen. and business, but in the hands of a new – what he eats, who he meets, where At first, they seem chaotic but gradually generation of digital artists, data is he goes – to create beautiful annual the familiar outline of America’s undergoing a metamorphosis – from reports of his life. These artists are at coasts reveal themselves. The country a unit of information into a fascinating, the forefront of data-driven digital art, has awoken, the day has begun, and beautiful, and expressive medium. yet most of us would agree we’ve barely thousands of planes have taken to the Artists like Ben Fry, who used scratched the surface of what’s possible. skies, carrying their passengers in US Census data to create All Streets, Technology is key. Sophisticated complex traceries represented by an a visualization of every road in the sensors allow us to collect more ever-multiplying spiderweb of light. continental United States. Like data than ever before, while faster

THINK CREATIVITY 35 Ten Thousand Cents, 2008 New York Talk Exchange, 2008 computers make it easier to process, Wilderness Downtown, uses Google to build artificial systems filled with and new software and programming Street View to put the experience beauty and complexity. Their creations languages give artists seemingly in front of any address inputted inspired me to work with real-world unlimited options for visualizing by the user. The second, Three Dreams data, information that’s recognizable their work. Projects that were simply of Black, uses a browser technology to all of us but tells a story that inconceivable a few years ago are now called WebGL to render interactive 3D we may not have seen before or gives being realized, and while you might worlds for the user to explore while us a different perspective on the world find the end result in a gallery, digital watching the story. around us. At its best, data art tells artists are actually more interested This is a ‘magic first, logo second’ the viewer something new about our in the web, not just as a forum to approach to marketing: We strive to culture, how we live our lives, and how display their art, but as a collaborative build amazing experiences that belong we see the world. medium in itself. in a museum more than a marketing Now we’re set to see an explosion Since graduating from UCLA’s presentation. The Wilderness Downtown, in data art. In the future, everything Design Media Arts program in 2006, for example, won the Interactive Grand will share data – our heartbeats will I’ve worked on a number of projects Prix at Cannes in 2011, and later that be recordable; everyday appliances like that use data as a medium for artistic year was showcased in an exhibit at the cars and refrigerators will stream data expression. I’ve worked with real-world Museum of Modern Art in New York. online; if a device processes information data, not just flight information, but Every marketing executive should ask of any kind, it will soon have the ability phone calls (New York Talk Exchange) themselves whether they’re genuinely to share it. New types of creativity are and laser scanners (House of Cards). excited by the work their brand has waiting to be uncovered by anyone who I’ve also worked with crowdsourced a hand in creating; if not, how can you takes this new technology and uses data, including drawings (The Johnny expect your audience, who has far less it to re-think old rules. Cash Project) and sound clips (Bicycle affinity for your brand than you do, To become a data artist, all you need Built for 2000). to be excited as well? is a little bit of practical knowledge As the head of Google’s Data Arts and a whole heap of imagination. Look Team, I also use the web to showcase became a data artist because around you: What data is available? Try Google technologies from the I was interested in using representing it, somehow, any way you perspective of a digital artist. Together computer simulation in can, even if it’s with pencil and paper. with director Chris Milk [see p.26], creative ways. When I was If you’re interested in learning computer my team and our agency collaborators in school, artists like Casey programming, download Processing have created two interactive music Reas and Marius Watz and try some of the tutorials. You’ll be videos built specifically for the Google were making works of generative surprised at what you can create, and Chrome browser. The first one,The art using code and mathematics the new things you’ll see

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