Urban Mobs
Mapping interactions across an entire city
Data visualization makes it possible to feel the pulse
of urban populations.
The French telecommunication leader Orange
has an extraordinary large amount of data. However, raw data does not have
intrinsic value in and of itself. Together with Orange, faberNovel built a data
visualization tool that enables the analysis of an urban population’s activity.
faberNovel’s work was to gather Orange’s
data and come up with a strategy to make sense out of it. The last step was to
find a way to display such a visualization in an aesthetic format.
faberNovel’s work
The product of faberNovel’s work had to
abide to functional, aesthetic and technical constraints. Therefore, faberNovel
managed its complete work process through a dynamic interface. This workflow
lowered the time necessary to produce data visualizations.
The three-step solution
1. Orange’s mobile data collection
Orange’s teams
in Europe provided faberNovel with high-definition mobile communications data.
The scope was limited to six cities and the collected data was standardized.
2. Data processing
faberNovel came
up with the method used to process the data. It allowed great flexibility in
changing the visualizations’ parameters.
3. Design of the visualizations
The last step consisted in displaying data in an aesthetic manner. faberNovel designed the visualizations with help from Hell Heaven, a 3D engine developed by Persistant Studio under the artistic management of Paul Coudamy.
· For this project, faberNovel used:
An expert team in information
design and dynamic mapping technologies.
· Its flexibility and ability to
quickly gather a team of experts, analysts and designers.
Results
UrbanMobs was
presented at the Grand Palais in December 2008 for the event “The Night of
Images”, an exhibition dedicated to digital visual arts in Europe.
It was also shown during the Venice Biennale of Architecture (August 29th to November 21st 2011), as part of a film directed by Richard Copans, and as part of an exhibition at the London Transport Museum.
