Real very analog and at the same time personal objects pointing to the data of the Global Footprint Network

Global Footprint Network
The Global Footprint Network, an international non-profit organization founded in 2003 that places ecological limits at the center of decision-making. An important aspect of this is the collection and provision of the data that make up the ecological footprint, which is done in cooperation with numerous organizations and institutions.

Data visualization with inlay
The work series TOK3N uses the ancient decorating technique of wood inlays as an anachronistic material for the visualization of data. Found, among others, on cedar wood coffins in Egypt, inlay were already used in the third millennium BCE. Thanks to their long-term durability, they provide a dynamic contrast to the everyday fleetingness of digital data. The physical representation of data in the form of a wooden object turns into a snapshot with new references and points of contact. The dataset, which normally serves scientific research purposes, is placed into cultural contexts as a piece of art.

TOK3N App
Each TOK3N is linked to the corresponding website, where the background information on the respective dataset can be retrieved. The visualization of data reproduced on the inlay can be experienced interactively on the respective website.

Concept
Data increasingly shapes our social being, our economic contexts, and our environment, all the while remaining virtually invisible. Difficult to access for most people, its operations are concealed. The TOK3N series of works engages this contradiction by making data visible in real space as real objects. What emerges are analog objects, based on data analysis, that, as wooden intarsia, find their respective individual artistic expression. The crafts of programming and wood-working complement each other in this process.

www.olafval.de/001

www.footprintnetwork.org

Wooden intarsia inlays and App, 2018
Based on JavaScript and p5*js