Margot Gersing – Looking Outwards 11

This week the female creator I decided to focus on is Yael Braha. She is a designer and creative director from Italy. She focuses a lot on large scale interactive projects and sculptures in her personal time. I was really inspired by her project Animal Race. This project was done for California Academy of Sciences in 2013.

This project is a very simple and effective data visualization. People can decided what animal they want to race and then in real time the race with a projected animation. The animation reflects the real speed of the animals so you can see if you are actually faster than a elephant for example. The data from the race is immediately displayed, stored and compared to all the other ‘runs’.

What I really like about this project is how it is so simple and so effective. She used Arduino, Processing, animation software, Resolume and electronics like a projector. It is so playful that people are drawn in and want to participate. It is also a teaching tool about data, data visualization and animals.