| Beschreibung |
We usually think of data representations as visualizations. But what if a data representation could move beyond the screen, manifesting as a 3D physical shape and materiality, entering the real world? This would allow us to touch, hold, and feel, or even navigate the data by physically moving around it. Physical representations of data have existed for thousands of years. Initially emerging from the arts, data physicalization is increasingly investigated in Information Visualisation and HCI, pushed by recent advances in digital fabrication and mechanical actuation. In this project, we want to explore the power of data physicalizations as a tool for public awareness, civic engagement, and social change. We aim to communicate data on the defining topics of our time – Climate crisis, peace and conflict, inequality, political shifts, or others. Therefore, we must confront some key questions: What data is there and what does it represent or exclude? How can we critically and responsibly work with such data? How can we design and build data physicalizations for the public that help to enable users a more intuitive and deep understanding of the represented data? What can we learn here for interaction design to make information not just accessible, but also empowering? How do people experience these installations, and can those experiences spark reflection, dialogue, and transformation? Following a Research through Design (RtD) approach, we will work in teams (mixing technical and design students) to develop large-scale dynamic data physicalizations. We will take a look into literature and existing projects, investigate forms of public communication that address communities and large audiences, and set a special focus on rather large (maybe inflated) installations. This course is perfect for students who enjoy tackling open-ended problems, individual and multi-disciplinary group work, and generating their own concepts. Topics include qualitative data representations, data physicalization, affordances, shape-changing interfaces, activism and public communication and others. Participants should be interested in a full project cycle: ideation, prototyping, exhibiting, study design and evaluation of the resulting data physicalization. This includes research, discussions, group work, data analysis, prototyping with hardware (e.g., Arduino), working with materials (e.g., wood, fabric, plastics), or using traditional fabrication techniques (e.g., origami-folding). The project is most suited for students seeking 18 ECTS. |
| Voraussetzungen |
Product Design (PD): Creativity, practical experience with design of interactive products/objects, physical construction (e.g. 3D-printing, laser-cutting, woodwork, metalwork etc.), ideally some prior experience with electronics and Arduino or with mechanics (moving parts). Media-Architecture (MA): Creativity, practical experience with physical construction (e.g. 3D-printing, laser-cutting, woodwork etc.), ideally some prior experience with electronics and Arduino PD and MA: Please apply until 07.04.2026 by E-Mail with Hannes.waldschuetz@uni-weimar.de and eva.hornecker@uni-weimar.de (please include a description of your prior experience in relevant areas, with examples of prior work if applicable) ! |
