Mapping the Invisible: Transforming Singapore urban data into art through effective colour palettes

2019 2018 2017 2016 2015

Mapping the Invisible: Transforming Singapore urban data into art through effective colour palettes

Goh Shuhui

Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Fine Art - Animation / Motion Graphics

Category Semifinalist

Students work on a self-directed project whose focus reflects the interests, skills and abilities that they have developed during their time at ADM. Its output should reflect their own developing creative identity and should be professional and high-quality in its form. The students should be able to state in advance the essential practical and creative remit of the project and have a understanding of the resources that it requires and the time that is needed to complete it. A written component (FYP Report) examines the personal, historical, aesthetic and cultural background of the project.

Mapping the Invisible: Transforming Singapore urban data into art through effective colour palettes

Mapping the Invisible focuses on the role of new urban media as a tool to unveil invisible information on the diverse aspects of urban life such as air quality, the intensity of sunlight and transportation patterns. Given the various technologies in current context, new media art has the ability to provide a collective sense of the environment.

Thus, this project exposes and raises awareness on the invisible harmful presence of ultraviolet radiation and air pollutants in public urban settings through a prototype that uses effective colour palettes to introduce new experience of reading data. The work is displayed on Media Art Nexus (MAN), a fifteen meters by two meters large media LED wall at the North Spine Plaza at Nanyang Technological University (NTU). MAN is a part of the Art on Campus initiative by the NTU Art & Heritage Museum and a permanent public art installation.

For this occasion, it is transformed into a mapping platform of Singapore to enable Ultraviolet (UV) Index and Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) data to be visualised across the different island locations and time of the day.

This Final Year Project (FYP) is shortlisted as a Semifinalist in Adobe Design Achievement Awards 2017, nominated for Art, Design and Media (ADM) Sustainability Award 2017 and featured on Culturepush. It was also exhibited at Singapore National Design Centre.

Sketches of prototype

Animated Prototype

The legend box assists viewers to read the data. Two icons are created to represent UV and PSI respectively as both are colour coded from cool tone to depict the gradual change from positive/ low exposure to negative/ high exposure. As UV is collected on an hourly basis, its icons are spread across the screen to indicate the UV index value for that particular hour. Whereas for PSI data, it collects data from different regions – North, South, East, West and Central on an hourly basis. Thus, various coloured PSI icons appears at specific areas to indicate PSI index value for that area and hour.

Prototype screened at MAN, NTU North Spine Plaza.

Booth display at NTU, Art, Design and Media (ADM) Gallery.

Complimentary postcards are given to guide visitors to the actual screening location – MAN from ADM.

The research journal compiles and translates a year worth of research, experimentations and prototypes from personal archive blog called Open Source Studio (OSS). OSS uses the Web as a tool that opens possibilities towards the creation of new projects, documentations of work, ideas and research.