datasculptures
“could data grow more affective if it were material, tangible, life-sized and beautiful?”
building on our conversations at rumtiden in 2019, håkan invited slowstudio to turn data into human-scale sculptures for the swedish pavillion at the world expo in dubai. these datasculptures presented sweden’s stance on socio-economic topics like democracy, foreign aid, women in academia, immigration, energy, and forestry.
![](/assets/media/projects/202010 slowstudio/projects/2106 worldexpo datasculptures/3d_render/energy_portrait.jpg)
data, on sweden's energy sources, manifest in 3d. • rendered by shruthi venkat.
![](/assets/media/projects/202010 slowstudio/projects/2106 worldexpo datasculptures/exhibition_audience/annlinde.jpg)
data, on women in academia / sweden's gdp, presented to the swedish foreign minister, ann linde.
colophon
functioning as slowstudio, with shruthi venkat.
collaborators: håkan libdo ; jörgen abrahamsson & mikael forth (data) ; thewoodregion (3d-printing) ; bankerwessel (graphic design).
process
the process for making the sculptures demonstrated sweden’s—and our!—technical skill and sustainable manufacturing abilities: we were collaborating as a geographically dispersed team, using forestry-waste as a raw material, and robotically manufacuting 3d-printed wooden sculptures.
data
we worked with jörgen & mikael to collect datasets, tidy them up, and sketch ways to turn them into conversation-starters for global audiences.
![](/assets/media/projects/202010 slowstudio/projects/2106 worldexpo datasculptures/datasets/demographics_dataset.jpg)
![](/assets/media/projects/202010 slowstudio/projects/2106 worldexpo datasculptures/datasets/processing_sketch.jpg)
3d-forms
simple transforms helped turn these datasets into 3d-forms.
![](/assets/media/projects/202010 slowstudio/projects/2106 worldexpo datasculptures/3d_render/fusion360.jpg)
![](/assets/media/projects/202010 slowstudio/projects/2106 worldexpo datasculptures/3d_render/demographics.jpg)
scale
visualisations and miniature 3d-prints helped us gauge their placement, sizing and affect.
![](/assets/media/projects/202010 slowstudio/projects/2106 worldexpo datasculptures/prototypes/scale.jpg)
![](/assets/media/projects/202010 slowstudio/projects/2106 worldexpo datasculptures/prototypes/prototypes.jpg)
motion
we wondered if we could animate the data (to complement the sculptures), but eventually—after having our share of fun—decided against placing dynamic content next to the sculptures.
![](/assets/media/projects/202010 slowstudio/projects/2106 worldexpo datasculptures/animations/3.gif)
![](/assets/media/projects/202010 slowstudio/projects/2106 worldexpo datasculptures/animations/4.gif)
printing
we’d never 3d-printed wood before (or known it to be possible). additionally, cost constraints gave us a maximum of two shots at each print. but, we made it work!
![](/assets/media/projects/202010 slowstudio/projects/2106 worldexpo datasculptures/prints/thewoodregion_robot.jpg)
thewoodregion's robot 3d-printed the sculptures. (this image was taken from their website.)
![](/assets/media/projects/202010 slowstudio/projects/2106 worldexpo datasculptures/prints/energy_warp.jpg)
we suffered some beautiful failures along the way, but learned quickly.
![](/assets/media/projects/202010 slowstudio/projects/2106 worldexpo datasculptures/prints/energy.jpg)
![](/assets/media/projects/202010 slowstudio/projects/2106 worldexpo datasculptures/prints/energy_petrol_closeup.jpg)
exhibit
the datasculptures resided in the swedish pavillion of the world expo, in dubai, for 6 months over 2021–22.
![](/assets/media/projects/202010 slowstudio/projects/2106 worldexpo datasculptures/exhibition/entrance-SQ_1280px.jpg)
entrance to the swedish pavillion. • image credit: john wallis / expo2020.se
![](/assets/media/projects/202010 slowstudio/projects/2106 worldexpo datasculptures/exhibition/exhibition-night-SQ_1280px.jpg)
exhibition • image credit: john wallis / expo2020.se
![](/assets/media/projects/202010 slowstudio/projects/2106 worldexpo datasculptures/exhibition/energy.jpg)
![](/assets/media/projects/202010 slowstudio/projects/2106 worldexpo datasculptures/exhibition_audience/rwanda.jpg)
rwanda's minister of trade and industry, ¿Béata Habyarimana, at the exhibition.