cambu-lookingoutwards07

click above to play around with it 

The prompt for this looking outwards is especially difficulty for me because there are so many great examples out there + I’m very aware of where/how to find many more. I recently found out the co-creator of Processing & founder of Fathom, Ben Fry, attended CMU for Communication Design and CS.

Hence, to make it easier, I decided to scope in and select something from Fathom’s incredible portfolio of work. One of their pieces, The Measure of a Nation, stuck out in particular for both its interesting mobile and web interactions (click here for video) and the ease by which it allows the comparison of complex information.

The piece isn’t immediately ‘understandable,’ and normally that would bother me, but I like that it becomes more comprehensible as you play with it longer. This reminds me of something Dan Boyarski told our C-Studio I class last mini, it went something like this:

‘Have a conversation with the viewer […] provide them the respect to believe they can come to understand your message […] it’s not necessarily a bad thing if your work asks something of the viewer’