Three Corners of The City

The project brief was to engage local communities with live smart city data collected and stored on the City of Casey Open Data Platform in aesthetically pleasing and tangible ways. The data needed to be visualised in real-time and displayed on a large-scale, publicly accessible, interactive media wall (across 8 screen panels, 3m wide x 1.5m high with a combined pixel resolution of 7680px by 2160px) in the entrance of the award-winning Bunjil Place in Narre Warren, Melbourne.

The project uses three real-time data sets from Narre Warren, Berwick and Cranbourne captured with IoT sensors. The sensors count the number of pedestrians who walk past each sensor 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, which are then visualised in three community clusters. Each cluster uses the data in three ways to control: 1) the density of particles, 2) the colour intensity, 3) movement (speed and direction) of particles. An information overlay indicates the day of the month (left side) and time of day (right side) as the visualisation cycles through each hour.

The project demonstrates how smart city data can be used to create dynamic data visualisations that are both beautiful and informative. The project highlights the enormous potential for the visualisation of smart city data to inform city planning. In this case it is especially useful for visualising traffic flows and to support pedestrian safety in high-traffic areas of each of the three communities. The abstract and real-time generative nature of the work allows for the conception of expressive and engaging motion graphics through chance-based creative processes. It informs practice on unique processes for the creation of real-time data-driven motion graphics.

The project is designed to showcase and compare pedestrian movement across three communities in the City of Casey, each contained to their own ebb and flow of daily routines. Three Corners of the City has been created in a game engine (Unreal Engine) using custom-made blueprint scripts to read each of the data sets and apply this information to drive individual attributes of the motion graphics visuals. The visual design and motion of the abstract forms are inspired by the theme of the project being community movement. In addition to the digital data visualisation, postcards were designed for community members to engage further with the work in the form of citizen activations. It was important to not only have a digital component but to form a digital identity though connecting the self-generated data and the digital artwork. Each postcard asked for a response to a captured still image of one of the three communities showcased in the data art. As the data seemingly takes the shape of moving mythical creatures an example activity included: “Name your community’s mythical creature”. The responses are collected by the City of Casey to share on the council website and social platforms.