Contemplating Deaths from Car Accidents : The dissemination of information About Deaths and the Viewer's Perspective on Installation Art through Generative Real-time Data Visualization Displays

Abstract

Diagrams have been used to display information for a variety of reasons since prehistoric times. Later, economic, scientific, geographical, and statistical diagrams were utilized. As computer technology progressed, the resulting diagram got increasingly complex and accurate. Stephen Wolfram, a British mathematician, utilized computer technology to produce a diagram depicting his daily behavior, which included sending e-mails and the number of keystrokes on the keyboard. Hsieh Teh Ching also utilized this notion in his "One Year Performance" series. He reflects capitalism by photographing himself over the course of a year and clocking himself with a punch card. Both works demonstrate how statistics, data, and graphs may be used to convey a message through the medium of art.

            The author's work is an additional instance of data and information being used to convey and send messages through art. By tying the receipt printing technology to the website's accident database, the statistics of fatal car accidents were used to generate artworks that were automatically created in real-time, associating consumerism with the valuable value of life. When death notices are posted online, the printer will print a receipt and let it fall from the ceiling like a leaf, symbolizing a life that will never return.

            This artwork is intended to collide with audience expectations and the experience of seeing art, in addition to providing the optimal environment for computer processing to develop autonomously art installations. On the other side, the phenomena of happiness that this activity generates is life and death of fellow creatures.