Blog.

Itouchyoutouch is a prototype for an interactive installation I did with Nikolas Psaroudakis in Open Frameworks. We wanted to create a way for people to interact and form connections across time using spatial media. The installation consists of a round table with a touch sensitive surface. When a user touches the screen, particles will be emitted from the outline of the users hand. The movement of the hand will be recorded and stored - along with the outline of the hand - in an XML file.

This allows other users to touch the surface and interact with recorded touches: When you touch the surface, the application finds the oldest touch and plays this back along with the current users touch.

When a user moves his hand on top of and old touch, the particles emitting from the 2 touches will establish gravity and start moving towards each other. The color of the particles will also change, signaling a connection.

The installation is built to allow multi-touch and can be used by many users at the same time.

Go to Video Demonstration Download Source Code on Github

Lately I've been very interested in generative graphics: creating logos or designs based on code visualizations. This is one of my attempts to create an "R" using OpenFrameworks and the Box2D physics library.

See Animation Video Download Source Code

I've found that good data visualizations are hard to find. Even the best sites have post after post showing ugly bubble diagrams with Twitter connections. So here's my list of some of the best sources for great data visualizations I've stumbled upon in 2009:

http://infosthetics.com/
Great site if you know where to look. Go back in the archives to find beautiful work.

http://flowingdata.com
Not as good as infosthetics and also a much smaller site.

http://www.nytimes.com/
Sounds weird, but their graphic department leaded by Steve Duenes come up with great, refined visuals.

http://www.earlboykins.blogspot.com/
Minimalist graphs visualizing performances or everyday experiences.

http://manyeyes.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/
Not my favourite. Look for great data mashups, not great graphics.

http://www.datamasher.org/
Same with this one.

And some greats books:

Maeda @ Media
Not the best book about creative coding, but a nice look into the earlier works of John Maeda.

Creative Code
The better one by John Maeda.

Graphic Data Revealed
A really good book. Short and precise.

Data Flow
A truly beautiful book about modern data visualization. 50 percent of the content is great, which is much, much higher than all other stuff around.