Watcher is a series of interactive art pieces based on observational data gathering. It originated as an art piece for the Department of New Urban Mechanics in Boston. However after finishing that piece I wanted to continue and have several more in the works right now.
Watcher 00
Download: Full Release
The first watcher project began as an observation of the movement of buses and pedestrians at the Ruggles bus stop in Boston. I observed the movements from an elevated position, sitting on the upper platform. Over the course of 2 hours of observation I found the following:
- A majority of people using the area were not there for the bus
- Few people sat when they were waiting for the bus, regardless of if seats were available
- People standing waiting for the bus rarely interacted
- Buses could only travel in a single direction due to the layout of the stop
Watcher 01
Download: Full Release
The second watcher project was based on the movements of tour groups and pedestrians from my dorm at Northeastern University. I observed the movements from an elevated position, on the second floor. The observation lasted 33 minutes and 10 seconds, the duration of the album Superorganism by Superorganism. I observed the following:
- People often traveled in groups
- The number of people in the group was roughly connected to the number of times a group of that size was noted
- When two groups came into contact the groups would briefly struggle as they tried to navigate around each other
- The only clear group leaders were found in the tour groups
- When tour groups passed other groups would take notice