#localpoet
#localpoet is an interactive art installation that allows digital data to be upcycled.
A student project by Marie Backhaus, Eva Haugrund, Diandra Hermann and Julia Podlipensky
6th semester, 2022
Supervising lecturers: Benjamin Faust, Andreas Schindler, Prof. Tsunemitsu Tanaka
#futureofdata
Data is the digital footprint we leave behind in our digital lives. As the digitalisation of our society accelerates, more and more data is being produced – mostly for one-off use, such as hashtags on social media.
But does data really have to be used just once for a specific purpose? What else could be created from data that has already been generated – what other, new contexts could it take on?
The field of data upcycling is still in its infancy and highly experimental, but it will become increasingly important in the future in terms of the reuse of digital raw materials. It also facilitates a discussion about how society handles digital data.
#offer
#localpoet is an art installation for people in public spaces who want to shape or tidy up their surroundings. It offers the opportunity to create poems from hashtags left behind in public places.
This process takes place within the urban context. In this context, the geotags of social media posts containing hashtags correspond to the city’s real-world public spaces. The principle of upcycling is applied in the analogue world at the very locations where the data is generated and left behind.
#upcyclingprinciple
The hashtag poem is created using hand gestures in three steps: collecting, creating and publishing.
Metaphorically, hashtags left lying around in the surroundings are picked up from the ground and float along with the hand to the creative plane. Subsequently, 11 collected hashtags are arranged in the air with the hands within an ‘Elfchen’ poem template. Accessible to others, the finished artwork is displayed on a wall projection with a sweeping arm movement from bottom to top.
#poetry
The poems consist solely of the selected hashtags. However, their new form makes them more readable, and the creative process lends them greater significance – they convey an absurd, yet above all poetic, reflection of the place.
The focus here is not on the resulting artwork, but on the act of creating art itself. The process of consciously reshaping the environment through hand gestures is primarily intended to be fun. Through the playful ease of the projections, visitors are given control over their own artistic creation.
#result
A concept has been developed for both indoor and outdoor use. At present, the projections and gesture recognition are limited to a smaller area.
The first prototype tests the principle of picking up and compactly arranging objects. A VR system with a controller is used to track the hand’s position and speed.
This is where you get your first sense of how the hand gesture principle works.
Initial use cases for the installation can be seen in the city or its museums. However, the data upcycling principle developed here could also, with further refinement, be applied to services for other types of digital data, for example within businesses.