I chose the two following projects, which happen to come from the same design studio, because they deal with form generation; the first, maybe not that explicitly, visualizes form that otherwise is invisible and the second grows form by “growing” data.

Onformative, 2009, Experimental data visualization: Growing Data

project’s web page:   http://www.onformative.com/work/growing-data/

Growing Data is a research project that examines how real processes and structures can be used to create an alternative form of data visualization. The project uses a plant growth algorithm and experiments on the possibilities of visualizing the air quality in various large cities. Various data, coming from data bases for large cities, is assigned to variables that control life span, density and speed of growth in the algorithm. The algorithm is based on an agent model in which various agents are controlled by Brownian motion and are influenced in their movement by the various variables.  What I find interesting about this project is that it does not focus on visualizing the precision of the data but rather on letting new formal structures to emerge which tell their own story and are open to interpretation by the observer.

Onformative, 2011, Immaterials – the form of meta data

project’s web page:   http://www.onformative.com/work/immaterials/

This project is about visualizing the immaterial. About suggesting ways to visualize the electro-climate of a space, electromagnetic fields of data. The project is not based on real data but on visualizing in space the fictional illustrations by Ingeborg Marie Dehs Thomas who who interprets the spatial expansion of radio waves. The visualizations were created using the procedural light painting technique, employing a projector, a distance sensor and a camera set to longtime exposure.

Immaterials – Data between visibility and invisibility 

Below, the visualizations of  electromagnetic fields by Ingeborg Marie Dehs Thomas.

Anatoly Zenkov, IOGraph (formerly known as MousePath)

IOGraph is an application that visualizes mouse movements over time. Visualizing the invisible again! It is interesting to see what patterns and structures may emerge out of the overlaying of the multiple traces.