something in the way

Remember when you played Telephone as a kid? No matter how simple the message seemed to be in the beginning, the end result was a garbled mess of nonsense. This is the straight line-drawing version of Telephone by Clement Valla. Five hundred individuals were asked to trace a straight line, but there was one catch:

Each new user only sees the latest line drawn, and can therefore only trace this latest imperfect copy. As the line is reproduced over and over, it changes and evolves&mdsah;kinks, trembling motions and errors are exaggerated through the process.

Watch as a single straight lines turns into a mess of scribbles.

[Video Link via Boing Boing]

WiFi is everywhere, floating and whirling around us somehow, but where is it really? In Immaterials: Light painting WiFi, Timo Arnall, Jørn Knutsen and Einar Sneve Martinussen use a rod of blinking lights to visualize signal strength in their college town.

In order to study the spatial and material qualities of wireless networks, we built a WiFi measuring rod that visualises WiFi signal strength as a bar of lights. When moved through space the rod displays changes in the WiFi signal. Long-exposure photographs of the moving rod reveal cross sections of a network’s signal strength.

The stronger the signal strength, the more lights that illuminate in that specific spot, updating as the walker/carrier moves. Then using long-exposure photographs, the lights are recorded for beautiful results. Super simple concept, yet very effective. See the device in action in the video below.

[YOUrban via @wattenberg]

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Fact is not always clear cut. Sometimes fact is driven by opinion. People might have conflicting points of view or maybe the truth is simply unknown. We can see this via Wikipedia, where anyone can edit and create documents. Sometimes people propose that articles should be taken down, and if the proposal is approved, people can discuss. Dario Taraborelli, Giovanni Luca Ciampaglia, and Moritz Stefaner have a look at the most active of these discussions.

We analyzed and visualized Article for Deletion (AfD) discussions in the English Wikipedia. The visualization above represents the 100 longest discussions that resulted in the deletion of the respective article. AfD discussions are represented by a thread starting at the bottom center. Each time a user joins an AfD discussion and recommends to keep, merge, or redirect the article a green segment leaning towards the left is added. Each time a user recommends to delete the article a red segment leaning towards the right is added. As the discussion progresses, the length of the segments as well as the angle slowly decay.

So the more controversial articles stick straight up, where there is consistent back and forth to keep and delete. Branches that have sway a lot are where keep and delete arguments came in waves, maybe by fans. Branches that curl all the way left or right were more one-sided discussions.

Above is the tree for articles that were eventually deleted. Here's the one for those that were kept.

While the researchers note that most discussions end pretty quickly, it's fun to look at the most active ones. Roll over branches to see the topic, and click through to read the discussion.

[Notabilia | Thanks, Moritz]

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eCLOUD, conceived by Aaron Koblin, Nik Hafermaas, and Dan Goods, displays weather data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) via specialized liquid crystal displays, suspended from the ceilings of the San Jose International Airport.

The eCLOUD is a dynamic sculpture inspired by the volume and behavior of an idealized cloud. Made from unique polycarbonate tiles that can fade between transparent and opaque states, its patterns are transformed periodically by real time weather from around the world.

When it's raining, the eCLOUD appears to be dropping, while in a city that has hazy skies, the display feel slow and lazy. Stormy weather shows a busy cloud, bouncing around wildly.

Below is some footage of the piece in action.

There is also a display that accompanies the piece, which shows you the city that is currently up and its weather conditions. A smaller animation plays what's going on above.

How is this done? Again, as the site explains, it comes down to the liquid crystal tech, which some manufacturers have used for windows and dressing rooms. Opaque in its resting state, but then clear when you add some electricity, demonstrated below.

Data feeds into the main machine, and then delivers directions via Processing (the software) and a hundred circuit boards (the hardware).

Very cool stuff. If anything, it sure beats the nappy carpet in Las Vegas' airport.

[eCLOUD | Thanks, Dan]

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Antrepo wonders what it might be like if the labels on consumer products were stripped of all their flare and were to go semi-minimal and completely minimal.

Obviously some of them wouldn't work from a practical perspective, because well, customers would have no idea what the product was, but from an information design and visualization perspective, it's fun to think about. Strip out the extraneous until you can strip no more.

[Antrepo via theusrus]

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Sure, why not, let's make it a hairy Friday. From Tor Weeks: a series of moustaches styled by their typographic counterpart, aka typestaches. The big and bold typefaces like Federal and Wide Latin get thick and burly moustaches, while the more delicate typefaces, get thin and curvy.

If only facial hair were as easy to select as fonts. I'd get myself a 24pt Mr. Century Ultra.

Grab a print for yourself here.

[via kottke]