A conversation between trees: what data feels like in the forest

Authors:
Rachel Jacobs;Steve Benford;Mark Selby;Michael Golembewski;Dominic Price;Gabriella Giannachi
Affiliations:
The University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK;The University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK;The University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK;The University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK;The University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK;The University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
Venue:
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Year:
2013

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Abstract

A study of an interactive artwork shows how artists engaged the public with scientific climate change data. The artwork visualised live environmental data collected from remote trees, alongside both historical and forecast global CO2 data. Visitors also took part in a mobile sensing experience in a nearby forest. Our study draws on the perspectives of the artists, visitors and a climate scientist to reveal how the work was designed and experienced. We show that the artists adopted a distinct approach that fostered an emotional engagement with data rather than an informative or persuasive one. We chart the performative strategies they used to achieve this including sensory engagement with data, a temporal structure that balanced liveness with slowness, and the juxtaposition of different treatments of the data to enable interpretation and dialogue.