DISPERSIONE metaphorically depicts the struggle of human cooperation in the face of climate change. The piece focuses on the noteworthy flood tides that devastated Venice in November 2019, also known as the second-highest Aqua Granda, and on their treatment on online social media platforms. It draws from both meteorological and social media data. A network of human interactions, resulting from online discussions at the time of the event, is immersed in a simulated fluid whose dynamics mimic those of the sea. The natural disaster represented in the piece strains the social network, setting the nodes and links in relentless motion. Over time, the network becomes more or less dense; it either resists or succumbs to the flood in which it evolves. The artwork builds on two quite distinct sources of information: hydrodynamic data gathered by the Istituto delle Scienze Marine (ISMAR) and the Centro Previsioni e Segnalazioni Maree (CPSM) and a corpus of tweets published during (and in response to) the Aqua Granda. DISPERSIONE builds on two quite distinct sources of information. To simulate and represent the physical event, that is to say the tempest and rising waters, the piece takes advantage of hydrodynamic data gathered by the Istituto delle Scienze Marine (ISMAR) and the Centro Previsioni e Segnalazioni Maree (CPSM). The datasets contain the level, direction and speed of the waters at different times and spatial locations in the Venetian lagoon. To model online social exchanges, DISPERSIONE also relies on a corpus of tweets published during (and in response to) the Aqua Granda. It then exploits classical models of fluid mechanics, as well as network visualization paradigms, to display and study the structure of social interactions. The objective of DISPERSIONE is hence threefold. First, it offers an aesthetic representation of two complex systems in motion: climate change processes on one hand and the mechanisms of online social dynamics on the other. Second, superposing the systems allows the viewer to observe the climate event and its corresponding human response throughout time. Lastly, coupling the systems exposes the features of human cooperation networks that help society withstand external threats.
Armin Pournaki is a junior researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, where he develops social media observatories using interactive network visualizations.
Robin Lamarche-Perrin is a tenured researcher at CNRS working on computational tools for social sciences. He also conceives interactive installations, simulations and algorithms for digital arts.
Come metafora dell’inefficacia della cooperazione umana di fronte al cambiamento climatico, Dispersione mostra una rete di interazioni sociali immersa in un liquido che impone ai nodi e ai collegamenti il suo movimento inesorabile. Con il tempo, la rete potrebbe essere più o meno coesa, e quindi resistente all’inondazione simulata in cui si evolve. Il corpus di Twitter contiene tutti i tweet postati a Venezia durante l’Aqua Granda 2019. I dati idrodinamici consistono nel livello e nel flusso dell’acqua (o flusso dell’aria) durante l’AquaGranda del 2019, come misurato dal Centro Previsioni e Segnalazioni Maree. L’installazione sfrutta i classici strumenti di visualizzazione della rete, sviluppati dal progetto ODYCCEUS, per visualizzare e cogliere la struttura delle interazioni sociali.
Armin Pournaki è un dottorando al Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences di Lipsia, dove sta sviluppando osservatori di social media utilizzando visualizzazioni di rete interattive. È interessato ai meccanismi che portano alla formazione di comunità nelle reti, e attualmente sta esplorando nuovi approcci matematici all’analisi del discorso.
Robin Lamarche-Perrin è un ricercatore del CNRS presso l’Istituto dei Sistemi Complessi di Parigi Île-de-France. Lì, lavora su strumenti computazionali per lo studio dei processi sociali e delle interazioni umane. Concepisce anche opere d’arte digitali basate sulla simulazione fisica, l’alterazione algoritmica eil design generativo: https://lodelo.ART