The Museum of Data

Flight Patterns by Aaron Koblin

Added to the Museum of Data by Erika Kim on Wednesday, December 15, 2021. Museum of Data Collection ID: 920.

Public description: As an early digital media artist, American artist Aaron Koblin was at the forefront of incorporating data visualization into art- he founded the Data Arts Team at Google in 2008 before leaving to pursue his passions. "Flight Patterns" is a 24 hour time-lapse animation that Koblin created in 2011. Using the open-source visual design programming language, Processing, "Flight Patterns" visualizes 24 hours of airplane traffic over America. Throughout the video, the audience can see the map light up when various red-eyes depart the West Coast, only for the East Coast to erupt with color due to West Coast red-eye and European transatlantic arrivals. Once the East Coast lights up, the rest of America slowly lights up as the sun rises from East to West and there is more flight activity. This piece is an artistic visualization of over 200,000 flights that departed and arrived in the U.S in one single day, using data that was provided to the artist from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Materials used: Processing, Adobe After Effects, Maya, Video

Credit: Data Visualization, Flight Patterns; Designed by Aaron Koblin (American, b. 1982); USA; video made with processing, adobe after effects, maya; Gift of Aaron Koblin; 2014-41-1

Size: Resolution: 1280x720@30 Viewport/Frames: 640x360*2.00

Creation date: 2008/08/12 00:00:00

Alternate identifiers: 68743525

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