Data Impressions for a Smart City: Exploring New Ways to Present and Engage Citizens in Environmental Data

We live in a world full of data being generated in exabytes by citizens, devices, buildings and assets intricately embedded in our environments. Whilst there is potential for this data to improve many things, much of it is unused and invisible to the average citizen who in turn may have switched off through ‘data fatigue’. This paper introduces the concept of the data impression through data physicalisation as a way to engage citizens in their data. Like the art impressionists of the late 1800’s (who broke away from photo-realist painting), the authors of this paper want to break away from the rendering of detailed and complex dashboards of endless and graphs and statistics to create an engaging and meaningful impression through dynamic physical objects and systems.

These ideas are explored through the detailed reporting and reflection on an 18-month data physicalisation project (Daptec) funded by the Welsh Government Smart Expertise (European Regional Development Fund). This project brought together a number of industry and academic partners around the problem of communicating environmental data relating to Flat Holm Island, a mainly uninhabited site of special scientific interest a few miles from the coast of Cardiff. The resulting physical smart technologies developed for the project were exhibited in Cardiff’s Techniquest science centre in spring 2022 with view to promoting dialogue around the island and its ecology, a more sustainable tourism and positive environmental practices for our smart cities.