Gallery of Physical Visualizations
and Related Artifacts
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This is a chronological list of physical visualizations and related artifacts, maintained by
Pierre Dragicevic
and
Yvonne Jansen
. Thanks to
our contributors
. Feel free to post a
general comment
or if you know of another interesting physical visualization, please
submit it
!
This list currently has 330 entries.
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Passive physical visualizations (0)
Active physical visualizations (0)
Physical models (0)
Measuring instruments (0)
Interactive installations (0)
Enabling technologies (0)
Other (0)
Uncertain (0)
30000 BC – The Very First Sculptures
18000 BC – Water Clocks
5500 BC – Mesopotamian Clay Tokens
2600 BC – Inca Quipus
500 BC – Visualizing Opinions with Pebbles
150 BC – Greek Orrery
132 – Chinese Seismoscope
1200 – Pop-Up and Movable Books
1500 – Plans-Reliefs
1500 – Flow Visualization
1660 – Galileo Thermometer
1700 – Wearable Abacus from the Qing Dynasty
1714 – Mercury Thermometer
1750 – George Adams’ Solid Geometry...
1753 – Barbeu-Dubourg’s Machine...
1787 – Chladni Plates
1820 – Papier-Mâché Anatomical Models
1839 – Théodore Olivier’s String Models
1850 – Merryweather’s Leech Barometer
1862 – Marshall Islands Stick Charts
1862 – De Chancourtois’ Telluric Screw
1865 – Hofmann’s Croquet Ball Models
1866 – Dewar’s Brass Strip Models
1866 – Kundt’s Tube
1871 – Thermodynamic Surfaces
1875 – Van’t Hoff’s Molecular Paper...
1880 – Klein’s Mathematical Plaster Models
1880 – Winogradsky Columns
1885 – Ammassalik Wooden Maps
1887 – Marey’s Movement Sculptures
1889 – Gaudí’s Hanging Chain Models
1890 – Polynesian Genealogical Instrument
1897 – Stop Motion Animation
1898 – Tallies Used as Social Displays on Pacific...
1898 – Crookes’ Vis Generatrix
1900 – Modern Solid Terrain Modeling
1900 – Crum Brown’s Mathematical Surface
1901 – Davenport’s Physical Distributions
1907 – Pin Maps
1913 – Frankfurt Streetcar Load
1914 – Solid 3D Curves for Engineering
1915 – Wire Models of Factory Worker Movements
1920 – Yakama Time Ball
1930 – Mathematical Functions Embodied in...
1933 – IBM’s Cosmograph
1934 – Ford’s Globe
1934 – Hayward’s Moon Model
1935 – 3D Visualizations of Power Consumption
1939 – Map of Great Britain’s Marine Trade
1940s – Stedman’s 3D Periodic Table
1941 – Traffic Flow Profiles of the Interregional...
1945 – Electron Density Map and Molecular Model...
1947 – Dorothy Hodgkin’s Electron Density...
1949 – Moniac: A Hydromechanical Machine to...
1949 – Mississippi River Basin Model
1951 – Microtiter Plates
1951 – Electricity Generated or Demanded
1953 – Watson and Crick’s 3D Model of DNA
1957 – Proteine Visualizations
1960 – 3D Spectrogram
1961 – Voskhod Spacecraft “Globus”...
1965 – Stop Motion Animation of Physical 3D Map
1968 – Jacques Bertin’s Reorderable...
1968 – Charles Csuri’s Numeric Milling...
1970 – 3D Sankey Diagram
1970 – MoMA Poll: Participatory Bar Chart
1970 – Byron’s Bender
1973 – Mazamet Ville Morte
1977 – Graphical Waterfall
1979 – Great Polish Map of Scotland
1984 – Dewdney’s Analog Gadgets
1985 – Using the Physical to Explain the Virtual
1987 – All the Submarines of the United States of...
1991 – Münster Congestion Visualization
1992 – Tactile Infographics
1992 – Durrell Bishop’s Marble Answering...
1993 – Slumber: Brainwave Weaving
1995 – Loren Madsen’s Early Data...
1995 – San Diego TeleManufacturing Facility
1996 – Ned Kahn’s Wind-Visualizing Facades
1999 – World’s Largest Solid Terrain Model
2000 – Graph Boards
2000 – Kanban Boards
2000 – A Shape Display Appears in a Movie
2002 – Bathsheba Grossman’s Crystal...
2003 – Solid Terrain Model with Airplane Trajectory
2003 – Time Pieces: Physical Space-Time Cubes
2003 – Mount Fear: Elevation Map of Crime Rates
2003 – Pattern Recognition in a Bucket
2004 – Cylinder: Early Sound Sculpture
2004 – Full-Color 3D-Printed Scientific...
2004 – Scripps’ Molecule Models
2004 – XenoVision Mark III: A Dynamic Solid...
2004 – Synaptic Caguamas: Visualize Cellular...
2004 – Array of Belts Visualize Public Presence
2004 – Of All the People in All the World: Stats with...
2004 – Worry (Prayer) Beads
2005 – Time-Evolving Scatterplot
2005 – Tactile Rubik’s Cubes
2005 – Molecular Jewellery
2006 – Inverted Participatory Bar Charts
2006 – Nathalie Miebach’s Woven Sculptures
2006 – Pulse Room: Light Bulbs Show Heart Beats
2006 – RoomQuake: Earthquake Visualization for...
2006 – Peter Jansen’s Movement Sculptures
2006 – Clebsch Cubic Surface
2007 – Global Cities: Elevation Maps of City...
2007 – Explosion of Sound Sculptures
2007 – Wable: Web Behavior Shown with a...
2007 – Wavefunction: Visualize Public Presence in...
2007 – Garden of Eden
2008 – Kids Reconstruct Harry Potter’s...
2008 – Scientific Visualization in Crystal
2008 – Andreas Fischers’ Data Sculptures
2008 – Justin Stewart’s Data Sculptures
2008 – Rearrangeable Wooden Model of Brain...
2008 – Activity Logging with LEGO Bricks
2008 – Bug Tracking with LEGO Bricks
2008 – Joshua Callaghan’s Physical Charts
2008 – BMW Kinetic Sculpture
2008 – Psychogeographical Mapping: Travel...
2009 – Form Follows Data: Tableware
2009 – In-Formed: More Data-Driven Tableware
2009 – S-XL CAKE: Irregular Cake Mold
2009 – Distribution Plushies
2009 – Mitchell Whitelaw’s Weather...
2009 – DataMorphose: Animated Sails
2009 – Pulse: Animated Heart Shows Sentiments
2009 – Virtual Gravity: Giving Physical Weight to...
2009 – Poly: Physical Bar Chart Showing Online...
2009 – Centograph: Dynamic Bar Charts Show...
2009 – Leithinger’s Interactive Shape...
2009 – Marcovici’s Single-Datum...
2009 – Windcuts: Wind Travels Captured on Wood
2009 – Federal Budget Explained with 10,000...
2009 – How Much Sugar do you Consume?
2010 – Data Sculptures in Class
2010 – Relational Ornaments: Networks Shown...
2010 – Keyboard Frequency Sculpture
2010 – Limbique: Brain Slices
2010 – Thematic Maps of Germany
2010 – Hans Rosling Adopts Physical...
2010 – Headspace: Array of Actuated Bars
2010 – Shanghai Spheres
2010 – Dynamic Bar Chart to Visualize One’s...
2010 – eCLOUD & airFIELD: Ambient Airport...
2010 – Dust Serenade: Sound Waves Materialized
2010 – Quipu of the Periodic Table
2010 – Retweet Ripples
2010 – Cookbook Arranges Ingredients into...
2010 – Computer Glitches as 3D Objects
2010 – and Counting… Tattoo of War...
2011 – From Over Here: News Trends
2011 – LEGO Prism Maps
2011 – Tōhoku Japanese Earthquake Sculpture
2011 – Paper Models of 3D Plots
2011 – DIY United States Electoral Vote Map
2011 – Can We Keep Up: Sponges Show Domestic...
2011 – DataCoaster: Data-Driven Toys
2011 – Laser-Cut Time Series
2011 – David Bowen’s Sea Wave Replicators
2011 – Adrien Segal’s Data Furniture
2011 – Warning: Real Time Global Air Quality...
2011 – Tape Recorders: Time-Measuring Tapes
2011 – Stephen Barrass’ Physical Data...
2011 – Jose Duarte’s Handmade...
2011 – Manually Animated Graph of Scientific Data
2011 – Blip: A Year of Travel
2011 – Sleep Patterns
2011 – Ursus Wehrli’s Art of Clean Up
2011 – Digital Arab Spring
2012 – General Motors’ 3D LEGO...
2012 – All Possible Photons: Steel Feynman...
2012 – Thesis LEGO Board
2012 – Meshu.io: Data Jewellery you can Order...
2012 – Matthijs Klip’s Data Sculptures
2012 – Putting Physical Visualizations to the Test
2012 – Rearrangeable 3D Bar Chart
2012 – PARM: Static Terrain Models with...
2012 – Hypermatrix: Animated Matrix-Walls
2012 – Emoto: Projection Augmented Heatmaps of...
2012 – Dynamic Network Sculpture
2012 – Large-Scale Drone Swarm
2012 – Chaotic Flow: Abstract Flow Visualization of...
2012 – Pulse Drip: Visualize Heartbeats with a...
2012 – Slime Mold Imitates the United States...
2012 – Data Cuisine
2012 – Grand Old Party: Political Satire
2012 – Google Eye: Radial Visualization of Page...
2012 – Pulse: Tangible Line Graph
2012 – Poland Budget Presented with LEGO...
2012 – Bit Planner: LEGO calendar
2012 – Point Cloud: A Dynamic Weather Sculpture
2012 – What made me
2012 – Stop & Frisk: Physical Data Filtering
2013 – Solid Statistics
2013 – Network of the German Civil Code
2013 – NYC High School Dropouts
2013 – Layered 2D Plots
2013 – Season in Review: iPad + Physical Charts...
2013 – SweatAtoms: Physical Activity Sculptures
2013 – Quickly Authoring Physical Visualizations
2013 – Behavioral Landscapes
2013 – Line Charts of Cortisol Levels
2013 – Robot Arranges 8,000 Nails Into a Data...
2013 – Very Pointy Elevation Map
2013 – Pneumatic Charts
2013 – Data Sculpture of Chicken Inbreeding
2013 – Flip Books Rather Than Movies
2013 – Motion Structures: Videos as Space-Time...
2013 – 3D Social Networks
2013 – A Snow Chart of Mobility in Science
2013 – Turning Facebook Connections into Data...
2013 – Loci: 3D Printed Sculptures of Your Flights
2013 – Examined Life: Giving Shape to Activities
2013 – Punchcard Economy: Data Knitting
2013 – Programmable Matter Stars in a Movie
2013 – Population Density Emerging from Walls
2013 – Walkable Age Pyramid
2013 – Doug McCune’s Physical Maps
2013 – Releases
2013 – 3D Spherical Visualization with Aural...
2013 – Temperature Scarves and Afghans
2013 – Pop-Up Infographics
2013 – State Of The Union
2013 – Tidal Memory
2014 – People Wood: Data Sculpture of...
2014 – Sphere Packing: Visualize...
2014 – Light Painting Acceleration
2014 – Water Works: Maps of the San Francisco...
2014 – Blaue Blumen: Handcrafted Offline Data...
2014 – Building Visualizations with Tokens
2014 – Pan-Anthem: Visualize Statistics Using...
2014 – 888,246 Ceramic Poppies to Commemorate...
2014 – Data Crystals: Conglomerated World Stats
2014 – Abyss Table: Scale Model of Deep Sea as...
2014 – Dynamic Physical Charts Display...
2014 – Cosmos: Carbon Exchange Captured in a...
2014 – TiltWatch: Physical Tilt Indicator For...
2014 – Data Clothing: Dresses Show Air Pollution
2014 – Data Strings: Physical Parallel Coordinates
2014 – Drip-By-Tweet: Each Vote is a Drop
2014 – Physical Visual Sedimentation
2014 – DIY Bertin Matrix
2014 – District 5: Tube Charts Reveal Decline in...
2014 – Data Storytelling with LEGOs
2014 – Silver Ring Shaped by DNA Profile
2014 – x.pose: a Wearable Dynamic Data...
2014 – Made By Numbers
2014 – #Good vs. #Evil
2014 – Sound Bites
2014 – Rearrangeable Display of Ice Data
2014 – Lego Senate
2014 – Mount Saint Helens – Pre and Post...
2014 – WeatherWindow
2014 – Data Sculpture in the White House
2014 – 3D Interest Rate Surface
2015 – Physical Customer Satisfaction Survey
2015 – Data Necklace of Good Night SMS
2015 – Solid Model of Stellar Winds
2015 – Touching Air: Necklace Shows Air Pollution
2015 – Sicherheit: Switzerland’s Money in...
2015 – Interregional Merchandise Trade
2015 – Paper Cut Terrain Models
2015 – Physical Weather Display
2015 – London Eye Chart: A 135m Tall Donut Chart
2015 – Multivariate Beer
2015 – 3D Paper Model of Shrinking Aral Sea
2015 – Beeswax Maps Crafted by Bees
2015 – Dan Gilbert’s TV Ads
2015 – Kohei Nakajima’s Computing Tentacle
2015 – Canadian Federal Election Explained with...
2015 – U.S. Cost of Political Campaigns
2015 – Passim: Visual Reconceptualisation of...
2015 – Lake Brite: Ecological Data on a LED Cube
2015 – Inequalities Quipu
2015 – Create your own Sound Sculpture
2015 – Jller: A Robot Rearranges Pebbles by...
2015 – Participatory Representation of Happiness
2015 – Dataseeds: Flying Data
2015 – Summer in the City
2015 – U.S. Unemployment Rate 1948-2015
2015 – Life in Clay: Sharing Memories through...
2015 – Wage Islands
2015 – Rearrangeable Physical Map
2015 – Quantum of Peace: Numerical Display...
2016 – Central Park NYC Temperatures
2016 – Podium: Physical Competition Monitor
2016 – Turning Weight into Scale
2016 – Motus Forma: People’s Motions in a...
2016 – FizViz: A Wall-Mounted Data Gauge
2016 – Actuated Prism Map of Italy
2016 – Housing Prices Ripping San Francisco...
2016 – Dataponics: Human-Vegetal Play
2016 – Cairn: Situated Data Collection and...
2016 – Walkable Collaboration Network
2016 – Thoughtforms: 3D-Printed Thoughts
2016 – Topographic Jewelry
2017 – Hand-Crafted Magazine Infographics
2017 – EuroGums: Edible Population Pyramids
2017 – Wearable Self
2017 – Coral Reefs
2017 – Damião’s Dataphys Project
2017 – Animals Tracking
2017 – CO2 Emissions Shown with Balloons
2017 – Are you Sure you Want to Smoke?
2017 – The All Too Evident Ashtray
2017 – Green Berlin
2017 – Street Debaters
2017 – Gravity Wave Spectrogram – LIGO
2017 – Popsicles of Pollution
2018 – Steven Pinker explains Global Life...
2018 – Spanish Dictionary Cemetery
2018 – Multimaterial Printing of Volumetric...
2018 – The Long Run: Marble Runs Convey Cost of...
2018 – ON BRINK: Live Physicalization of the...
2018 – Living Map: Precipitation Visualized with...
2018 – Inequality in Chile Represented with LEGO...
2018 – Phylogenetic Tree with Real Specimens
2018 – Solving the Shortest Route Problem with a...
2018 – Anthropocene Footprints
2018 – DayDohViz: Data Visualizations made with...
2018 – Traveling Datavis Game
2018 – Stretch Orchestra Marble Run
2019 – Self Knitted Scarf of Train Delays
2019 – New Worry Beads: Deaths from Terrorism
2019 – Hostile Terrain 94: Deaths at the US/Mexico...
2025 – Digitally-Fabricated Visualizations of the...
2033 – Cetonia: Drone Swarm Visualizations
2060 – Programmable Matter
