Although there are older data sculptures (see our entry 1995 – Loren Madsen’s Early Data Sculptures), this installation from artist Ethan Ham may have been the first artifact to be called a data sculpture. In 2005, Andrew Vande Moere, a Design Professor and author of the now discontinued data visualization blog infosthetics, described the installation as: an art installation that automatically creates physical data sculptures, using spam & e-mail as data to trigger the sculpting […]

Glitch objects is a series of artworks by Tracy Cornish which transform two-dimensional visual results of computer glitches into three-dimensional objects by mapping properties of a visual glitch into 3D space. The left image shows glitch object 22, the right image shows glitch object 218. Computer glitches are the completely random, unpredictable and unexpected failures of digital systems. They are the result of approximated values and computational compensations for inaccessible information. […]

These shiny porcelain spheres visualize how risky a person is. The project was created by Nikita Rokotyan and the team during the 72U creative residency program in 2015 led by Maria Scileppi. Thirty-eight guest speakers were asked to complete a survey consisting of 12 questions related to 3 different types of risk: financial, social and physical. Their answers were analyzed and mapped onto a sphere to visualize a person’s willingness to take certain risks. The individual spheres were then […]

The visualization explores the direct influence of weather and traffic volume on air pollution, comparing data of a 4-week period during summer 2015 in Lugano (Switzerland). Different colored laser cut plates fixed on wires represent daily data. As the wires are diagonally mounted on the structure, looking from different sides, they evidence either daily data or the evolution of the parameters. Source: Carola Bartsch (2015), Summer in the city

This data sculpture depicts a map of housing prices in San Francisco. It’s a map of the city, torn at the seams. The height of each area represents the average price per square foot for recent home sales. Where neighboring areas are close in value they are connected, but if neighboring areas are too far from each other I allow them to split, tearing the city along its most severe economic divides. Sources: Doug McCune (2016) Sculpture of Housing Prices Ripping San Francisco Apart Abigail Cain […]

Motus Forma is a data sculpture by Brian Allen and Stephanie Smith that aggregates 10 hours of people movements in the lobby space at Pier 9. The 1300+ motion paths are piled up according to time. Sources: Autodesk (2016) Motus Forma Instructables (2016) Motus Forma Photo by Pierre Dragicevic Related: Also see our other entries on temporal data.

Using open source NASA GISS data, british model maker and designer Matthew Stewart created a sculpture which communicates the temperature rise of the globe compared to 50 years ago. With the data’s lat/long variable, Matthew Stewart represented temperature increase with length of protruding rod – the greater the difference, the longer the rod. Made of 3,204 pieces, assembly had to be perfect to ensure the lattice structure held its form correctly, & so the data was represented accurately. […]

The collection "State of the World" is composed of population pyramids and was created by Mathieu Lehanneur for the 2021 exhibition art basel - design miami. Each of the 100 sculptures encodes the population data of one country: age is encoded in rings from birth at the bottom to 100 years at the top; the width of each ring encodes the proportion of the population being of that age. each age pyramid reveals the particularities of a nation — the youth of chad, translated by the geometric […]

Making the Invisible Visible is a project that tracks cyclists’ routes throughout the city and transforms this data into three-dimensional sculptures that double as public bike repair stations. These sculptural objects not only enhance public space and act as reference points for urban navigation, but also invite cyclists to reflect on bicycle movement across Quito (Ecuador) while repairing their bikes. Sources: Barriga-Abril, X., Vivanco, J., Rosas, C., Medina, X., Aulestia, A., & […]