Virtual New York

Pastiche is data visualization by Ivan Safrin and Christian Marc Schmidt that creates a virtual map of New York City neighborhoods based on keywords from articles posted to the web. The result is an ephemeral mediascape. This is a virtual New York that exists in the parallel universe of cyberspace. The artists encourage visitors to the project’s web site to download the application to their computer (Mac Intel OS X required) and explore the 3-dimensional space, using their mouse to navigate. Each neighborhood is a cluster of keywords, the verbal associations used to describe the physical place. The project reveals that the city is a pastiche of memories, emotions, and descriptions that are as real as the buildings themselves.