Making Visible the Invisible

George Legrady and Rama Hoetzlein

Media Arts and Technology / Art Department

UC Santa Barbara

Date: Friday, November 18, 2005
Place: Buchanan 1930
Time: 2:00 pm — 3:00 pm (Refreshments served at 1:30 pm)

Abstract:

“Making Visible the Invisible” is a permanent commissioned artwork for the Rem Koolhaas designed Seattle Public Library. The project consists in the visualization of the hourly circulation of books leaving and returned to the library for the next ten years. The visualizations are featured on 6 large LCD panels located on a glass wall horizontally behind the librarians’ main information desk in the Mixing Chamber, a large open 19,500 sq ft space dedicated to information retrieval and public accessible computer research.

Real-time animations are generated in the open source GameX platform and custom database software using data received from the library's Information Technology center. The 4 visualizations include “Vital Statistics” which provides circulation statistical data, “Floating Titles” condenses the hourly checked-out items into a linear stream of titles floating by, “Dewey Dot Matrix Rain” separates Dewey classified items from others into falling or flashing actions, and “Keyword Map Attack” color codes and spatially maps keywords associated with the circulating items.

GEORGE LEGRADY'S interactive digital media installations have been exhibited internationally since the early 1990’s. He is best known for his award winning artworks focused on the classification and visualization of data as in “Pockets Full of Memories” (2001) commissioned by the Centre Pompidou, Paris; “Slippery Traces” (1996) published by the ZKM Center for Media & Technology Museum in Karlsruhe, Germany, and the “Anecdoted Archive from the Cold War (1993). George Legrady is Professor of Digital Media in the Media Arts & Technology (MAT) Graduate program at the University of California, in Santa Barbara. http://www.georgelegrady.com

RAMA HOETZLEIN is enrolled in the PhD Media Arts & Technology program at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He received a BA in Computer Science, and a BFA in Fine Arts from Cornell University in 2001. Hoetzlein created GameX, an open source instructional game engine used to initiate the Game Design Initiative at Cornell University. http://www.rchoetzlein.com

For more information, visit http://www.mat.ucsb.edu/~g.legrady/glWeb/Projects/spl/spl.html


Press Coverage (September 14-19, 2005): http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/visualart/240371_library13.html http://www.artdish.com/blog/default.asp http://www.futureofthebook.org/blog/archives/2005/09/making_visible.html