Program: Feature Wall

Client: IBM Watson

Completed 2016

Data Moiré: is a large-scale feature wall designed and installed for the IBM Watson Experience Center in San Francisco, California. The project merges the territories of “data spatialization” and “data narrative” by using the cognitive computing capabilities of IBM Watson to inform a data-driven generative design processes. The result is a digitally-fabricated physical installation that illustrates monthly spending cycles by mapping the growing influence of mobile devices on all digital sales from 2013-2015. The data is materialized as a CNC milled, double layered aluminum, back-lit screen wall, producing a moire like effect through abstract visual interference patterns generated by the overlaying of two mappings of the same data set.

The resultant project is simultaneously an abstract representation of Big Data that offers a uniquely spatial marketing narrative, as well as a dynamic architectural feature with a visual experience that is amplified through the movement of visitors through the Experience Center. The paper reviews initial research and data mining, digital mapping and visualization studies, and the development of tectonic including spatial logics which have proved effective both representationally and atmospherically.

Data Moiré by Synthesis Design + Architecture for IBM Watson Analytics from Synthesis Design + Architecture on Vimeo.