SMART

SMART – DATA makes ART

Living in developed countries with superior infrastructures and seemingly unlimited access to the ubiquitous things, we tend to forget: resources are not infinite and need to be taken care of. Current smart home solutions for regulating and optimizing consumption give little to no information to the user on their behavior and routine. Although every device in our home is a data touchpoint, hardly any of this is reflected in our living space, where we most need it.

“Smart” takes this data out of the digital world and brings it into our homes to better inform and motivate us. It is not just a delightful and dynamic art installation, but also a companion which responds to our behaviour in real-time. It captures our attention by changing its appearance – a gentle reminder that nature is constantly being influenced by our behaviour.

“Smart” delights us by communicating complex data in a simple, understandable and non-intrusive fashion, allowing us to evaluate our consumption ourselves. A simple colour code mirrors our behaviour and makes us the student, artist and influencer of the installation all at the same time. The unambiguous communication allows us to think and reflect on our behaviour and makes us smile when we get rewarded for good actions.

Current solutions for tracking personal data rely heavily on numbers, graphs and alerts. All of these things are hard to form an emotional relationship with. Moving objects on the other hand are fascinating to people because we ascribe life to them and want to take care of them. Data presented in a tangible and easily understandable way creates intrinsic motivation to change one’s behavior.

Our homes and the objects in them tell our unique stories – the collection of objects we have in it are carefully chosen and they are part of our daily routine. “Smart” fits into this story and becomes an object of daily routine. Making the homeowner understand their own actions and the impact it has on nature is the first step to improvement and therefore a meaningful change in the way data is being communicated.