7000 oaks
and counting

Can media art trigger more ecologically responsible behavior or even save energy? The artist will display her new eco-visualization software as part of an Illinois public art commission for the new National Center for Supercomputing Applications in August 2007. Eco-visualizations are data-driven animations that display environmental information from a building in real time. The goal of the eco-visualization research is to show that daily visual feedback from site-based media art can elevate understanding of consumption patterns and possibly increase conservation behavior in resident populations.

The eco-visualization research is a creative reuse of existing technology: the building control system. Manufactured by companies like Siemens, building control systems are typically found in large institutional buildings. Building control systems provide central management and monitoring for air conditioning control, lighting control, and electrical and chilled water status monitoring, as well as providing energy management services. Typically, data from such systems is available only to a select audience of engineers and facilities personnel. The purpose of the eco-visualization software is to make key environmental performance data publicly accessible and easy to understand for everyone. As consultants to the project, Lucid Design Group provides software that reads these data points from building control systems, and the artist will turn the live feed of data into a dynamic visualization.

 

PUBLICATIONS ABOUT ART AND ECO-VISUALIZATION