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Project: Let's talk about bikes
Announcement page and survey using Processing-JS to generate a personalized takeaway and to survey community opinions on cycling. All responses were featured in the gallery exhibit.
exhibit
The full exhibit featured diverse content from a number of sources. From the curators:
Content is presented around five themes: infrastructure, culture, transit, production, and participation. Graphics explore how cycling relates to urban and environmental public policy. Interviews and photographs register the voices and experiences of communities that have coalesced around the bike. Examples of custom bicycles highlight the innovative craft and production techniques of the region’s expanding field of bicycle fabricators.
survey
Visitors were directed to the survey site to gather opinions on the state of cycling in the city. They were solicited for a tweet-length comment and attributes of their opinion.
every visitor had the opportunity to browse the index of responses.
Project: Infospace
A tablet app and multi-user projection system that highlights significant works of architecture in the Boston metro area. Was in use at the Boston Society of Architects for the duration of the InForm exhibit curated by over,under.
role
I built the App, backend catalogue tools, custom map, and projection system for over,under. The goal was to create an environmental experience for gallery visitors to learn more broadly about Boston’s architectural fabric. Users can explore an index of over a hundred notable buildings: their construction information, stakeholders, construction photography, quotes from architectural historians and maps. As they browse the index, their actions are logged to a projected map of Boston which traces a unique path for each client device, their actions taken, buildings visited, and falls back to a screensaver of the index when inactive.
design
The system was designed to support content generation from end users and dynamic communication between multiple clients and a projection server. Getting there involved experimentation with messaging patterns (OSC, generic UDP, websockets, long-polling), converting a printed map to a scalable web map with MapBox’s TileMill, and porting the system to a server connected to the in-house projection system.
- custom WordPress backend with structured data fields:
- GIS data, photography, quotes, writing, status, region
- browsable UI consisting of flippable “cards” with simple information, larger panels triggered via AJAX calls for more info
future
The system was designed to be easily replicable for other cities and we had reasonable success doing so. Subsequent iterations of the InfoSpace App system were used to drive 4dDoha and Pittsburgh Projects.
Project: Projections / futurecities
October 2011
A gallery exhibit at pinkcomma (Boston) and WUHO (LA) speculating on the urban future featuring a mix of digital and paper media. ~ docs at overunder.co
Projections is a research exhibit about the past, present, and future of urban design speculation. The research traces twenty five themes across nearly 300 projects in a variety of media. Each research item is represented in two interactive tools for cross-referencing themes, a postcard showing the project’s visual representation, an art wall full of QR codes which links to the live project in the database, and static infographics highlighting the interrelatedness of each topic.
As the research team’s developer, I built and maintained the content management system for cataloging the research, coded the interactive projections in Processing, created the API’s (XML and JSON feeds) for the postcard and art wall content, and transformed that data using XSLT to create the physical media.
The Exhibit
Interactive Tools
Developed in Processing to visualize the research archive behind Projections, these tools parse the database’s live XML feeds to bring the visitor a complete view of the research. Each entry in the archive is represented by it’s publication date, timeframe of study, and publication themes.
Interactive #1
This view maximizes the visual impact of connections between research topics and shows a broad view of the works included in the exhibit.
Interactive #2
This layout is zoomable and granular, highlighting project details more clearly. The user can also clearly compare a project’s publication mark against it’s scope to understand whether it is past-retrospection or future-speculation.
QR Wall, Postcard Walls and Tag Groups
Each of these physical installations shows the body of work in a specific facet. The QR code wall is a visual abstraction of each item, prompting the visitor to randomize their search; While the tag grouping is the collected prints of each entry in the database. Each is a physical collection meant to highlight the comparative ease of the same digital tool.
Projections was exhibited at Pink Comma gallery in Boston, MA and the WUHO Gallery in Los Angeles.
The Projections exhibit was developed as a member of the design team at over,under inc. in Boston, MA
- Built research catalogue tools and data structures (WordPress + structured data plugins)
- Coded interactive tools from the underlying research (Processing, JSON APIs)
- Converted SQL DB into QR codes, postcards, tag groupings
(
PHP,XML,XSLT)
Publications and Credits
Photos credit: Mark Pasnik over,under
Screenshots credit: Spencer Gregson
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