The Sublime Experience in Ecstatic Truth: Data Visualization as Art Topic: Exploring the aesthetics of information through data visualization. The Sublime Experience in Ecstatic Truth: Data Visualization as Art is an exhibition that embodies a collective of beautiful data visualization works of art and what truth it has to behold us, as we behold them. It celebrates the rise of the data visualization new media art, as the medium is with momentum, genuinely changing how we think and feel. This exhibition aims to culminate the experience of ecstatic truth driven by processed data. When Werner Herzog coined “ecstatic truth”, it was to describe state of sublimity from which “a kind of truth that is the enemy of the merely factual”. In this exhibition, the body of artworks gathers real data and through technological manipulations, creates an aesthetical experience. Above all, revered sublime beauty lies not only in information aesthetics, but also ecstatic truth relatable to general human system. Concept: According to Mario Costa, the new technologies are creating conditions for a new kind of sublime: the “technological sublime”. Data visualization in new media art transcribes raw data into a form of experience. It is driven by data, and its form follows from the optimization of efficiency in inputting data into a human brain. It is pragmatic, rational and logical. On the other hand, it is beautiful. It evokes emotions through its aesthetics. It communicates, distills complex ideas into simplicity and is thought provoking. In its consumption, it can be simply in delight and pleasurable. In this exhibition, the selection of works encompasses the human body and its relation to environment. The experience is designed for interaction to be quiet and observation in subtlety. The exhibition explores reflection of ecstatic truth based on factual data, treading upon contemplative ground.

Artworks: a) Data visualization transgressing public space

Title: User 632 Artist: UNDEF Format: Installation Date: 2013 www.vimeo.com/67073016 User 632 is an installation that captures the behavior of the people who look at it monitoring them in rerun. The installation is designed to know when and how a person passes by or if they stop on the way.

All data is being tracked and displayed publicly. Passerbies are stored as an anonymous number without any hints to their identities. Whoever comes close to the camera though will be stored with a photograph next to their id. The installation is made up of three Kinect depth cameras that constantly look for movements, which are then reduced to a simple directional line in space. When a visitor enters a specific area, the algorithm is looking for a face. As soon as one is found a countdown appears that shows the time until a photo is taken automatically. At the same time is the time a user is in the visible are is stored. This data (time, path and eventually image) are stored in a database, interpreted and displayed as real-time statistics. The anonymity resulted in such data visualization; only identifying through numbers synchronizes the value of each person. The curiosity that kills the cat will cost the viewer’s privacy. In this exhibition, User 632 is installed near the entrance. Visitors streaming into the exhibition space will all have to pass by the installation. Their behavior are effectively tracked and thus served as a fair game unfair in transgression of supposed rights to begin with. b) Simulation of naturalism through data visualization

Title: Tele-Present Water Artist: David Bowen Format: Installation Date: 2011 www.vimeo.com/25781176 Tele-Present Water is an installation that draws information from the intensity and movement of the water in a remote location. Wave data is collected in real-time from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) data buoy station 46075 Shumagin Islands Alaska. The water intensity and frequency is scaled and transferred to the mechanical grid structure, resulting in a simulation of the physical effects caused buy the movement of water from this distant location. The installation uses programming platform MAX MSP to drive an Arduino mega running servo firmata. It uses 11x24 volt dc mottos with drivers for the movement. While water is being simulated mechanically, real data is fed from distance. Telematically it has transgressed in its physically being but visualized in its naturalism. c) Data visualization as a sculptural performance

Title: Point Cloud Artist: James Leng Format: Sculpture Date: 2013

www.vimeo.com/42896836

Point Cloud is an attempt to re-imagine our daily interaction with weather data. Even when we can make use of sophisticated monitoring devices to document and observe weather, our analysis and understanding of meteorology is nevertheless inadequate. Weather continues to surprise us and elude our efforts to predict and control. Point Cloud builds on this premise, exploring new ways to interpret and understand weather data.

“Weather has always had a unique place in our lives, because it has a multiplicity that encompasses both the concrete and the indeterminate. It is the intangible context within which we build our lives and our cities, but it is also the physical element against which we create protective shelter. Most of the time it is an invisible network that we can see but are not aware of; yet it can manifest in a spectacle or disaster, come forward and activate our senses, make us forget our rationality in delight or fear.”

Point Cloud is a sculptural form defined by a thin wire mesh, driven asynchronously by 8 individual servos controlled via Arduino. As whiteness of the hanging structure begins to disappear into the background, the viewer is treated to a constantly morphing swarm of black points dancing through midair. Point Cloud performs the data, dynamically shifting between stability and turbulence, expansion and contraction.

 d) Sonic data visualization

Title: Forest Symphony Artist: Ryuichi Sakamoto, with YCAM InterLab Format: Installation Date: 2014 www.vimeo.com/82765073, 00:00 to 00:35 Forest Symphony was initiated with part aim of to develop an original device dedicated to measuring the bioelectric potential of trees, working around the concept of taking this gathered data and Sakamoto converting it to music; a symphony played by trees in forests from around the world.

“Trees convert sunlight to energy through photosynthesis, meaning they are a genius at capturing electromagnetic waves. I want to turn that nature’s cycle in to music.” — Sakamoto had always been deeply intrigued by forests and trees, now transformed into a concrete form of artistic expression; the Forest Symphony project. The exhibition space is transformed into a concrete forest, though not in an attempt to be hyper real. The musical quality of its naturalistic sonification assures that nature and technology harmonious coexistence, regardless if it is definitive.      e) Delayed echo of human activity in space and transgressed beyond time

Title: Space Replay Artist: Julinka Ebhardt, Francesco Techini and Will Yates-Johnson Format: Installation Date: 2014 www.vimeo.com/87979136 Space Replay consists of a floating orb that explores and manipulates transitional public spaces with particular acoustic properties. By recording and replaying these ambient sounds, the hovering sphere produces a delayed echo of human activity. Electronics were programmed and inserted into the sphere in order to record and replay the surround sounds. This clever ball is incepted into the exhibition space, liken to a closure for which one experience the passing of the other; traces in noise and floating presence. Museography: Location

CAM Raleigh seeks to curate the most contemporary works of art. CAM Raleigh also aims to provoke new perspectives and experiences, exploring the present and the future. CAM Raleigh’s vision is in alignment with the exhibition’s mission. Exhibition layout

   

In this exhibition space, the viewer will visit the space in alphabetical order but not restricted to it. a) User 632 by UNDEF b) Tele-Present Water by David Bowen c) Point Cloud by James Leng d) Forest Symphony by Ryuichi Sakamoto and YCAM InterLab e) Space Replay by Julinka Ebhardt, Francesco Techini and Will Yates-Johnson                                                                        

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