Interesting data visualizations can allow the viewer to perceive relationships that are otherwise reserved for the experts. This is especially evident in the mæve installation exhibited at the Venice Architecture Biennial in 2008. Viewers could place paper cards with printed buildings on a large table, on which additional buildings then appeared with a conceptual reference to the first ones. The installation took up a whole room and several visitors could simultaneously interact and observe the context of the buildings, the era they belong to, the construction techniques that made the building possible, or their style. The architectural cosmos is opened in a playful way and is even made accessible to people who cannot draw on this knowledge base.
Till Nagel is a researcher; but when he’s finished, he likes to invite his audience, take them by the hand, help them make their own experiences and enable them to leverage the generated knowledge to lead a discussion – especially when it comes to socially important topics or dealing with data per se. He enjoys taking on the challenge of organizing the complexity of the data in such a way that it invites the viewer to get involved with it. From there, it is possible to examine the matter ever more profoundly and to ultimately make new findings. Till and colleagues refer to their method as “staged analysis”: The whole is broken down into its components and processed technically and artistically. This method was put into practice in cf. city flows: Viewers can compare the bike-sharing services offered by London, New York and Berlin, and see where people come from and where they go. The three cities look like vein systems: organic and coalescent. As the timeline approaches 6am, the first points appear on the outer areas. The cities awaken and ever more luminous points make their way toward the centers, which seem to be where the business districts are located. The installation is divided into three views that are classified by their complexity. This makes it very accessible and also allows the viewer to lose his/her way in complex graphs. cf. city flows is many things at once: a city planning information portal, the illustration of a cultural phenomenon, and a digital work of art.
The results of Till Nagel’s work are space-filling installations, but there is always a lot of initial searching to be done. It is only by trying out, experimenting and exploring that he finally finds his starting point and gives shape to a pattern.
He himself sees his works as tools that should be put to use. The data is available to a growing public and should thus also be made accessible to them. Till advocates that this data should not only be used by large corporations, but rather would like to see it democratized, understood and used by the public in a individual manner.
Thank you, Till, for your inspiring talk! We look forward to seeing what the future holds in store.