Wind Map
An invisible, ancient source of energy surrounds us – energy that powered the first explorations of the world, and that may be a key to the future. Wind Map shows the delicate tracery of wind flowing over the US. The map is a near-realtime web site, conveying the force of the wind through motion and texture. As an artwork that reflects the real-world, its emotional meaning changes from day to day. On calm days it can be a soothing meditation on the environment; during hurricanes it can become ominous and frightening.
Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg work at the intersection of art, design, and computer science. They lead Google’s visualization research group in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The two have collaborated for a decade, and are known for creating the ground-breaking public visualization platform Many Eyes and founding the visualization studio Flowing Media.