AVATARS - LIVE TWITTER

The internet content is flowing constantly. If we chose to visualize this flow – say we follow the twitter updates, the blogs or the newspapers- we can actually watch it in real time. This application is an exercise of data visualization, using a webcam and a video display to mix the two aspects of internet social networking - the avatar and the message-, in one moving image.

Clouds of letters streaming directly from twitter messages over the net integrate with a webcam image to conform an ascii-like representation of the lights and shadows of a particular background. As people  look into the camera, they become avatars, and these letters start swirling around them, and becoming their image or contour, depending on the light conditions. The text messages appear on the video window as soon as they are entered by my followed fellows at Twitter. The actual letters that revolve around are formed by these messages.

cc- Juan Carlos de la Parra

song used without permission by Kid Koala, Barhopper II