Jamie Dorst Looking Outward 09

As I was browsing past Looking Outward posts, this one by Liz Maday about the 9/11 memorial caught my eye. I had no idea that the names on the memorial were organized in such a thoughtful and calculated way. The project was done by Jer Thorp, and he created an algorithm that would cluster names based on adjacency and relationships.

 

Liz mentioned that she thought “this is an amazing example of how a program is able to reflect very human emotions and intentions while also utilizing a precision and complexity that is above human ability,” and I completely agree. I think it’s amazing that we are able to use technology to determine such personal connections, and create something so meaningful. Before seeing this project, I never imagined that something like this was possible–I never thought relationships between humans could be computed in any way.