I am a big fan of Jonathan Harris. His Internet work was featured on OJ before a couple of times – you can see the post on We Feel Fine & Love Lines here. So when I get this email from Jonathan Harris about his latest project I was excited. As usual, Jonathan is able to clearly visualize the human side of the Internet. In Universe he uses the news information from daylife.com, a new news aggregation site that presents information in a different format, to show us our mythology – events, quotes, stories, people that are part of our daily life. If you want to understand more about how Universe works, look at Stages. The Universe is an applet that translates the news streams into a “real†graphic universe where the visitor can search any topic across any timeline, look at the major events, stories, pictures and people. The user can even select the backdrop color for his personal universe and the result is remarkable. Amazing work !
In his words:
Universe presents an interactive night sky, composed of thousands of twinkling stars, which then connect to form constellations. Each of these constellations has a specific counterpart in the physical world — a story, a person, a quote, an image, a company, a nation, a mythic theme. Any constellation can be clicked, making it the center of the universe, and causing all other stars to enter its orbit. Universe is infinitely large, and each person’s path through it will be different. For an explanation of how it works, read “Stages”. For a longer discussion of the ideas behind the piece, read “Statement”.
Jonathan Harris
This is what an Israel search for people looks like..
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