Blog – 07

The work of Jonathan Jennings Harris most inspires me. He is an artist and technologist who often works with data. One piece of work that I found particularly interesting was “I Want You To Want Me” which he created in 2008. It is an interactive portrait illustrating the search for love(and self) through online dating. In this project, Harris and his team gathered data from hundreds of dating sites and displayed them in a series of interactive ways. On a touchscreen panel, many balloons are displayed in various colors. Pink for women and blue for men. The balloons also vary in value, with younger people having lighter-colored balloons and older people having darker-colored balloons. Inside the balloons lie animated silhouettes of people trapped inside looking for love. These balloons are then algorithmically matched on the screen based on what people said in their profiles. The user is able to click on a balloon to learn more about each person.

https://jjh.org