Virtual Depictions: San Francisco – Cinematic data-driven sculpture

Created by Refik Anadol in collaboration with Kilroy Realty Corporation and SOM Architects, Virtual Depictions: San Francisco is cinematic and site-specific data-driven sculpture consisting of 90 minutes long dynamic visuals projected in the building lobby’s 40-foot-tall screen and visible from the street.

Main motivation with the project is to frame the experience with a meticulously abstract and cinematic site-specific data-driven narration. This media wall turns into a public event making phantasmagorical connections to its surroundings through carefully coordinated imagery. From particle trails, fluid simulation, fractal landscapes to geometric compositions and point cloud fly-throughs, the 12 different chapters animate the streetscape as much as the building.

↑ Early sketches

For example for the social network sculpture, the team built custom vvvv realtime system that traces down all the tweets which have been sent in San Francisco (geotagged) and maps them on a 3d pointcloud-representation of San Francisco. Every Tweet emits particles and is contributing to a heatmap. This heatmap displaces and colors the 6 milliion particles to form the datascape.

For more about the project by visitng the links below. Virtual Depictions: San Francisco is a public art commission located at the 350 Mission Building in City of San Francisco, California.

Created with vvvv and Softimage.

Project Page | Refik Anadol