Material: internet-based installation,real-time data visualiztion, algorithmic architecture
Hiraeth: The Modern Pompeii Television, computer, internet, web-based visual algorithmTime, in its linearity, flows irreversibly forward. Yet the internet defies... Read More
Hiraeth: The Modern Pompeii
Television, computer, internet, web-based visual algorithm
Time, in its linearity, flows irreversibly forward.
Yet the internet defies this logic—it enables non-linear access to moments, allowing us to return to past states with ease.
“News,” “events,” and “trending topics” now have increasingly short lifespans.
Even issues as critical as global warming—threatening human habitation—fade in relevance within a year or two.
Like the city of Pompeii, a rapidly developing metropolis buried in volcanic ash,
how many will remember once the dust has settled?
This installation uses internet big data to visualize trending keywords,
inviting viewers to decide whether what they see is an expired headline or a recovered fragment of memory.
Visually, news events are reconstructed as architectural forms inspired by ancient ruins—block-like structures that fall from above, slowly disintegrating over time.
Their brief appearances and disappearances become part of the viewing experience.
The system retrieves trending historical keywords from various countries and regions in real time.
These words drop continuously into a circular space, accumulating, compressing, fragmenting, and eventually vanishing—
evoking a persistent longing for realities we can no longer return to, and a digital form of hiraeth—a nostalgic yearning for something lost or unreachable.
