Beautiful Data

The Advantages of Two Data Capture Systems

It's worth noting that, after working on this video, I became a big fan of using more than one data capture system on the same project. Mixing technologies can have a multiplier effect on creativity. We could have used just the Lidar or just the GeoVideo system to shoot the entire video, but I'm glad we didn't. It may have made the project more complex, but it allowed us to be more creative. It also gave us a lot more flexibility in regard to what we could capture.

There are a couple lessons too that you can draw from my experience of finding equipment. The first is that when it comes to finding equipment for data visualization, look everywhere. There are exciting sensing technologies being developed constantly that have never been used artistically. If you're about to embark on a visualization project, do some research online, at trade shows, or at your local university. Find out if there are new ways to capture your data that you hadn't considered before. A different piece of equipment might add a theme to your work or reveal data you didn't see previously. Always be looking for visualization techniques that will surprise people.

The second conclusion is a warning: if you only use one of piece of equipment, your work may be seen as just a demo of that piece of equipment. If we had only used the Lidar to create the "House of Cards" video, I have a slight suspicion that the video might have become "the Lidar video." By using both the GeoVideo ...