Aisthésis of Communication Visualization through Twitter

Abstract

As technology develops, the communication methods are diversified, and, among them, the social network service (SNS) becomes popular by spreading intuitive and instant messages in cyber-physical space. Due to its unique features, this SNS-based communication inspires many media artists, who produced the visualized artworks after analyzing and extracting text messages on the SNS. We produce a prototype for interactive art installations, which involves audiences, analyzes the Twitter messages between audiences and many others, and visualizes the data on the screen in 3D, so that the audiences can experience and enjoy sensual Aisthésis of their communications. The works are made as follows. Once the Twitter messages are sent to the randomly designated accounts, they are animated by varying properties, such as the translation, rotation, font size, and color, and then the animated messages overlay with the existing messages that other audiences already sent. The animation follows either predefined shapes or paths, changes the velocity of message, and swings the individual letters of messages randomly. (To better express the process of mutual communications through twitter messages,) We also visualize the animated messages in 3D space that allows changing camera viewing and lighting, and divide messages into letter by letter so that each letter are able to be animated as a single object. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013.