LO 7 – Information Visualization

With an increase in use of technology, people’s city experiences have been collectively and continuously been documented on social media platforms, shaping a virtual city image. Designed and implemented by Moritz Stefaner in 2018, “Multiplicity” is a collective photographic city portrait that provides an immersive dive into the image space spanned by hundreds of thousands photos taken across Paris.

Using machine learning techniques, “Multiplicity” is based on a sample of 6.2m geo-located social media photos posted in Paris in 2017, and it organizes images by similarity and content, allowing the audience to visually explore niches and microgenres.

The projection spans three 1080p squares arranged in a slightly angled triptych structure, which allows for a more immersive experience, and visitors can navigate the manually annotated map using a touch device as well as a physical joystick. Overall, Stefaner intended to portray the city by using an arrangement of qualitative contents, encouraging viewers to explore and interpret on their own terms.