Google News Lab—Building Hopes

Each boulder in a “Hope Sculpture” represents an issue that the user is optimistic about.

Through data visualization, the project team aimed to highlight movements that are creating hope for the future and spread them at the speed of social media.

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The user chooses from a range of issues that are prominent in the press as tracked by Google Trends.

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The user rates each issue/boulder based on how hopeful they are about this topic for the future.

Augmented reality shows how a 3D version of the virtual sculpture would appear in a real place.

The AR feature also visualizes cumulative, real-time data on how others are rating the same issues.

The size, rotation speed, and direction of each of up to ten selected stones indicated how much hope the user had assigned to the corresponding theme.

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Building Hopes combines art, data, and technology to facilitate positive and critical thinking.

Google News Lab—Building Hopes

Digital Design, Data Driven Design

An immersive data-art experience invites people to express their hopes as augmented reality sculptures and use these to explore related Google Trends data.

Bruises : The Data We Don’t See

Data Driven Design

The process of tracking and interpreting the full impact of a child’s illness helps a family and their friend understand and communicate their experience through art and music.

Google News Lab—Building Hopes