Project information

submitted by
Hannes Waldschütz

Co-Authors
Carlos García Fernández, Christopher Heiden, Thi Yen Nguyen, Christina Schinzel, Tang Thi Hoang Yen, Luis Alberto Alvarez Zendejas

Mentors
Hannes Waldschütz, Prof. Dr. Eva Hornecker

Faculty:
Media

Degree programme:
MediaArchitecture (Master of Science (M.Sc.)),
Media Art and Design -Study programme Media Art und Design (MAD) (english) (Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.)),
Human-Computer Interaction (Master of Science (M.Sc.))

Type of project presentation
Artwork

Semester
Summer semester 2019

• Steubenstraße 6 - Universitätsbibliothek / university library
  (Erdgeschoss der Universitätsbibliothek)

Project description

Black balloons are floating weightlessly in the library lobby. Their movements resemble a dance, a choreography: lightweight, yet threatening. What influences their movements? What does control them?

The balloons are controlled by data and the visitors are right in the middle of a sea of data.

Data governs our everyday life. And data also unveils the condition of this world. Be it climate data, location data, or - like in this case - data about animal extinction.

The recently published report of the United Nations, which deals with animal extinction and the accompanying decline in biodiversity paints a severe picture of the destruction of species diversity. More than 1 million out of the 8 million animal and plant species living on earth will be threatened by extinction withing the next years. This is more than ever before in the history of mankind. It's the 6th mass extinction.

As ungraspable as the numbers are the global relations which lead to such a development.

The installation aims to make visible abstract data and its interconnections with the help of data physicalization. Contrary to data visualization, data physicalization overcomes the limitations of two-dimensionality on paper or the screen and shifts them to the three-dimensional space. The installation invites the visitors to interact with it, to experience and to explore it.