Data Net

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.

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.

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.

Design Team

In partnership with Fab Lab Barcelona

And in collaboration with Relco Lighting

Photos by Filippo Poli