Brendan Dawes
The Art of Form and Code

Amongst The Leaves

Nature inspired physical data objects

David Hunter — Associate Senior Lecturer in graphic design at London's Ravensbourne University — very kindly asked me to take part in his forthcoming book Data Walking, visualising a years worth of data captured around the Ravensbourne campus.

My response to the brief was a series of physical data objects you can hold in your hands to get a "feel" for the data collected on a certain day.

Inspired by the shell of a Horse Chestnut conker, these forms are designed to be put back into the environment alongside other fallen debris, for others to find and to ponder other. Each form uses the sound data collected on three different days throughout the year.

Whilst currently 3D printed using a wood based PLA, in the future might we bump into this type of data formed in real-time from self-assembling nano-bots, so that this often invisible though ever-present data becomes a familiar part of our landscape.