Saturday, July 25, 2009

Ondák’s Measuring the Universe

New York’s Museum of Modern Art has a piece called Measuring the Universe by Roman Ondák. It is a hands-on experience in data visualization. Per the MOMA’s description:

Viewers play a vital role in the creation of Measuring the Universe (2007), by Slovakian artist Roman Ondák (b. 1966). Over the course of the exhibition, attendants mark Museum visitors’ heights, first names, and date of the measurement on the gallery walls. Beginning as an empty white space, over time the gallery gradually accumulates the traces of thousands of people.

Below is a photo from Flickr user profzucker that captures the environment well.

There is a dense band of names between and around the average heights of men and women. Above and below, the presence of names gets progressively sparser. At almost 6’2“, I was at the top edge of the dense part.

The piece is at the New York MOMA through September 14, 2009.

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