This saturday, for the first time, I visited the SEE#6 - The Conference on Visualization of Information, in Wiesbaden, Germany. For six years now the See Conference has been gathering the most creative people and exciting ideas on the topic of information visualization. 'Sustainability' was the concept of this year. The conference was located in a very special place - in church. I must say I never spend so much time in church, but this time it was absolutely worthed.

The first speaker, Dr. Prof. Harald Welzer, social psychologist from Essen, gave (without using any slides at all!) a very interesting speech about sustainability, and about the fact that people, in order to save the environment, have to change their behavior pattern. Well, couldn't agree more. In his opinion we no longer live in a consuming society, but in a purchasing society. 30-40% of products are thrown away unused.

Following the idea of sustainability, the next speaker, Carlo Ratti from SENSEable City Lab presented 'Copenhagen Wheel' project, which is unveiled at the Unated Nations Climate Conference and will be produced commercially in june 2011. The idea is to transform bicycles into hybrid byke. Controlled via smart phone it maps pollution, traffic etc. Another prioect, related to the same matter, was a 'Trash-Track'. For this project several trash items were taged and the tag periodically measured its location. 'Trash Track' vizualizes individual traces of everyday objects and it is frightening to see how these objects are travelling miles away from where they actually have been trashed.

Brendan Dawes came up with a very intertaining presentation containing very serious pojects for clients as MoMa, BBC etc.

One of the highlights was the talk of Wesley Grubbs, the founder of Pitch Interactive, a data visualization and interactive studio that focuses on new technologies to solve complex needs. Using data visualization he explained the connection between the bread prices and growing opium in Afganistan and how it affects heroin consumptions in New York. He talked about work process behind 'McCain vs Obama' donations visualization, 'US Federal budget' visualization and many more. Speaking about sustainability he talked about 'Climate Wisconsin' educational project. It was created to help highschool students to understand the environmental challenges WInsconsin faces.
Wesley Grubbs showed an impressive variety of works, from illustrations and installations to user interfaces, applications and websites. Very inspiring.

The talk of architect Joshua Prince-Ramus was an absolute highlight of the conference (at least for me). Prince-Ramus (REX, New York) gave a truly inspiring talk about how deeply information architecture can be embedded into the space and which role data visualization can play in the conceptual process. Instead of hiring architects, who in his opinion can't think, he hires philosophers, fysicians and other creative minds. He spoke about his relations and work process with the clients as well. This approach resultes in a amazing architecture - multifunctional Performing Arts Center in Dallas, Museum Plaza in Kentucky, Seattle Public Library in Seattle etc. 'It's time for archiecture to DO things again, not just REPRESENT things' said Prince-Ramus. Well, his architecture certainly DOES things!

Even though I've seen the most of the works of Justin Manor at OFFF festival in 2010, it was nice to see it again. Sosolimited is experimenting a lot with live tv broadcasts, remixing spoken information. By remixing US presidential debates in 2004 and 2008 he gained international attention.

SEE #6 is one of the best conferences I've attended. Great location, impressive speakers. I learned a lot and came back home full of ideas. Looking forward to SEE #7!

p.s. for those who couldn't make it, watch the videos of the whole event
http://www.see-conference.org/video-stream/