Radiohead has released a video for their song “House of Cards” using no camera, instead created using data visualization.
The video was created using two technologies that use scanning systems and lasers to capture 3d images: Geometric Informatics and Velodyne LIDAR. Geometric Informatics uses a 360 degree revolving scanner using 64 lasers to capture a detailed close-up while Velodyne LIDAR captures larger ranges of geographic terrain that results in a rough scan.
The band has also made the data available so other people can manipulate the data and create their own video. You can see and manipulate the data here and also download tools yourself to create a video. You can see the resulting videos at the House of Cards Youtube Group.
“In a weird way its a direct reflection of where we are in society. Everything is data. I mean, everything around us is data driven in some shape or form and we are so reliant on it now. Our lives are digital.”
At our discussion on information visualization last week we looked at We Feel Fine - a web application dedicated to exploring emotion using data from the blogosphere. The creators of that site, Johnathan Harris and Sep Kamvar, now have an interactive visualization installation at the MoMA in New York City entitled I Want You to Want Me. It is currently part of the Design and the Elastic Mind exhibition
The visualization explores love and online dating, chronicling the online profiles of people from various dating websites. The data taken from the profiles is presented in the form of balloons floating in an interactive touch screen sky. Users can change the weather and explore the profiles. The piece has five movements Who I Am (showing sentences that start with “I am…”), What I Want (showing sentences that start with “I am looking for…”), Snippets (looking at openers, closers and taglines), Matchmaker (an algorithmic match-up of profiles) and Breakdowns (showing the most popular turn-ons, first dates, desires, self-descriptions and interests). You can find more information about the installation at their site.
Some other interesting web applications by Johnathan Harris include:
Lovelines (Johnathan Harris and Sep Kamvar) - exploring the landscape between love and hate using data from blogs.
Universe - exploring modern mythology in the form of the night sky and constellations
10 x 10 - exploration of images and words in the news.
Wordcount - an interactive presentation of the 86,800 most frequently used English words.
Whale Hunt - interface for telling the story of a traditional whale hunt in Barrow Alaska