TATE ECOSYSTEMS: A Microcosm of Life at the Tate

London-based creative innovation studio, HOLITION and Britain's National Gallery of International Modern Art; Tate Modern, embarked on a multidisciplinary collaboration to create an exhibition experience at Tate Lates, a monthly programme bringing together creative talent from across the globe to explore themes inspired by Tate's exhibited collections.

In response to the theme, Art x Technology, inspired by visionary artist-in-residence Nam June Paik, who embraced Mass Media & New Technology, Holition created data visualisations that explore the intersection of artistic narratives and visual metaphors with data driven realities through a technological lens to communicate a powerful story that is beautiful and relevant, which was exhibited live at the Tate in November 2019.

Named Tate Ecosystems, the visualisations present a microcosm of life at the Tate, both in the galleries and online, that are inspired by diverse patterns and structures of natural ecosystems. Holition highlighted interactions within the Tate, one of the world's leading hubs of international modern and contemporary art:

The first visualisation focuses on the footfall data in the Tate’s physical space. Following the beautiful flow and movement of natural ecosystems, the data sourced measured the movement of people through six entry points. Each strand represented 10 people while the width of each cluster represented the flux of people entering the building over time.

The second visualisation harnessed online data to communicate the global engagement that the Tate attracts. Using an artistic narrative, a combination of flowers were used as the second metaphor.

Each flower within the visualisation represented a month (1 petal = 1 day) of online activity. Key data points featured are: 1) The length of each petal communicates the number of social media impressions per day, 2) the length of the leaves represents total monthly engagement and 3) the amount of bulbs within each flower represents the social media reach of the Tate per month.

The exhibition experience at Tate Lates, which was also an output of Holition's summer internship programme, was a smashing success, with a recorded number of over 9,000 visitors in attendance.