Art of the Thrill


Using biometric data to visualize the thrill of driving the new Porsche Macan.

Sosolimited was commissioned by The Atlantic and Porsche of North America to visualize the thrill of driving the new Porsche Macan through biometric data. Twenty-five participants were invited to drive the Macan Turbo on a race track near Chicago, and suited up with Hexoskin biometric shirts that recorded their heart rate and respiratory response.

We created an artistic visualization of the data along with a short film to document the event and our process. A big challenge was to design forms that were both expressive and beautiful, but retained a threshold of legibility. We achieved a balance of expression and clarity by presenting the data as abstract landscapes evoking the shape of the race track. Each driver’s data streams are traced out along the virtual space of the track, growing and changing color to reveal the driver’s response to the thrill of driving a Porsche.

The piece was featured as sponsored content on The Atlantic website with editorial text describing the project. The full story is available at The Art of the Thrill.


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Client

The Atlantic

Porsche of North America

Collaborators

Danny Vecchione

Gloobic

Traqs

Heart and breathing rates depicted by inner and outer forms, respectively.

Data streams race along the track in virtual space.

“Artistic renderings of the data show that everyone experiences the thrill in different ways. The colors, shapes, and sizes reflect real-world factors such as the contours of the track, heart and breathing rates, moments of adrenaline, and moments of rest.”

CSIS Data Chandelier

Celebrating the work of an important think tank through data and light.

Energy of the Nation

Amplifying the mood of a nation to an urban scale for the 2012 Olympics.