Mapping

Artistic Statement

In line with the aims of the hearth project, the aim of the data mapping was to create a visual abstraction of a fire, to provide a platform for information exploration, and to create an artwork that was dynamically shaped by the customers of the Artos café.

Data Sets

Real time product purchase.
Customer Identity.
Price of product.
Energy contained within product.

Hearth uses real time data from the Artos café (a product being purchased) via a barcode scanner input device. The purchase of a product from Artos serves as an event trigger for the system. Each product purchased is represented as a unit square that falls from the top of the projection. The square comes to rest if it hits the bottom of the screen or collides with another square in the projection.

The customer’s identity is encapsulated in the unit square by a digital snapshot of the customer that is taken simultaneously with the barcode being scanned. This dataset is intended to encourage an ego investment of the user in the hearth visualisation and is relates to the concept of creating a collaborative and social experience in which the users all contribute to and shape the visualisation.

The price of the product is mapped to position from the left boundary of the projection to the right as least too most expensive respectively. This data set is conceptually related to our aim of creating a platform for information exploration and allows for the appearance of interesting trends and patterns.

The energy contained within the product is the primary dataset shown by the visualisation and is mapped both by the projection and the physical installation. Energy is represented instantaneously by the speed of the falling square, and then redundantly as colour to allow users to see the energy of a product after the block has come to rest. The energy within a product is added to a cumulative energy total in the system. When this total exceeds a minimum limit the physical component of the visualisation (the heater and lighting) switch on. The physical installation has three levels of resolution (heating only, heating and one set of lights on or all three on). The level of magnitude of total energy determines the level or state of the physical component in the system. The energy is consumed at a rate over time and once the energy total in the system drops the lighting switches off and when it is depleted the heater switches off. The opacity of the squares in the projection change as their contribution to the energy of the system is consumed. This mapping is fundamental to the concepts of the hearth as a warm, welcoming collaborative data exploration experience.