Mapping the Invisible : transforming Singapore urban data into art through effective colour palettes

Abstract

Mapping the Invisible focuses on the role of new urban media as a tool to unveil invisible information on the diverse aspects of urban life such as air quality, the intensity of sunlight and transportation patterns. Given the various technologies in current context, new media art has the ability to provide a collective sense of the environment. Thus, this project exposes and raises awareness on the invisible harmful presence of ultraviolet radiation and air pollutants in public urban settings through a prototype that uses effective colour palettes to introduce new experience of reading data. The work is displayed on Media Art Nexus (MAN), a fifteen meters by two meters large media LED wall at the North Spine Plaza at NTU. MAN is a part of the Art on Campus initiative by the NTU Art & Heritage Museum and a permanent public art installation. For this occasion, it is transformed into a mapping platform of Singapore to enable Ultraviolet (UV) Index and Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) data to be visualised across the different island locations and time of the day.