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Totemy. Image © Alicja Biala and Iwo Borkowicz/Totemy

Data Visualization Beyond the Screen Age: Interactive Totems Visualize Climate Data

Architect Iwo Borkowicz and artist Alicja Biala design sculptural totems that symbolize the relationship between humans and the forces of nature and communicate statistical data about environmental issues.

The colorful sculptures have been erected at The Bay of Art, in Poznań, Poland, they consist of a three-dimensional image that covers an area of 400 square meters. The different colours, proportions and patterns are an interpretation of the data and statistical data about the environment.

Totemy. Image © Alicja Biala and Iwo Borkowicz/Totemy

The sculptures are equipped with a QR code that allow users to interact with the sculptures using their smartphones and visualize the data relative to environmental issues, helping to spread information and sensitize society.

Totemy. Image © Alicja Biala and Iwo Borkowicz/Totemy

Each “Totemy Sculpture” is dedicated to specific environmental issues, starting from the Totemy dedicated to plastic pollution to one dedicated to air pollution and so forth. Biala, who is a visual artist and designer constructed all the sculptures with the help of local woodworkers.

This project represents an example of new Design that goes beyond the limits of its physical materiality establishing an interaction with the user through the contemporary media. This approach opens new opportunities for Architecture and Design to create spatial interfaces that extend beyond the three spatial dimensions offering mixed reality experiences to establish a new level of interaction with the user.

Totemy. Image © Alicja Biala and Iwo Borkowicz/Totemy
Mattia Santi

Mattia Santi

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