Archive notice: This article was originally published on March 3, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
As part of the New York Talk Exchange (NYTE) project, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have succeeded in visually depicting all of New York City’s electronic communications, according to pressetext.
As the New York Times reports, they analysed the telephone and Internet communications of millions of New Yorkers 24 hours a day for more than two months. The result is a graphical representation that clearly shows how the city is connected to the rest of the world in terms of communications and how these connections change over time. The researchers’ actual goal, however, after collecting further data in the coming months, is to gain insight into people’s migration movements.
“Our cities and the entire globe are covered with flowing particles of digital data,” explains Carlo Ratti, Director of the SENSEable City Laboratory at MIT. Looking at these data is therefore of particular interest, as it can help us better understand the physical world. “Ultimately, the NYTE project says just as much about New York as it does about all the other cities in the world,” Ratti says. This applies in particular to the areas of economics, culture and immigration. “In other words, our visualisation demonstrates that, in the age of globalisation, urban life is shaped as much globally as locally,” Ratti adds.
The NYTE project’s visualisations are divided into three different areas. The first representation, called “Globe Encounters”, uses 3D real-time animations to illustrate New York’s communications links with cities in the rest of the world. The second graphic, “Pulse of the Planet”, shows how these connections change over the course of the day. The third area, in turn, is entitled “The World inside New York” and provides insight into the communications activities of New York’s five boroughs.
The NYTE project’s graphical representation can currently be admired as part of the art exhibition “Design and the Elastic Mind” at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. In the exhibition, which runs until May, artists explore the ways in which designers use technologies to change lives.
Further information:
- New York Talk Exchange (NYTE) project
