When conceptualizing aesthetic methods of data visualization, there aren’t many people whose minds immediately jump to Kill Bill: Volume 1. But it includes one of the greatest examples of an analog design element doing exactly that: elevating a space while presenting key information in a pleasing way.
In the film’s final fight scene, Uma duels with katanas in a snowy Japanese garden. Their skillful fighting and emotional dialogue are punctuated by the rhythmic clunking of a shishi-odoshi. Originally invented to scare off deer, (literally “deer-scarer”) the device consists of a bamboo shoot teetering on a hinge that fills with water until it tips forward, then falls back with a gentle “clunk.”
Thurman and Liu’s showdown isn’t scored by intense, fast-paced music. Instead, the scene’s audio is decidedly minimalist: gusting wind, soft-spoken dialogue, clanging swords, and most importantly the repetitive thumps from the shishi-odoshi.
In the absence of music which typically provides temporal, emotional and aesthetic cues to the audience, the shishi-odoshi picks up the slack and works triple-duty creating all three. The light, consistent clunks keep track of time, they create tension through a repetitive build-and-release pattern, and the tipping motion adds a dynamic element in otherwise still moments. The thoughtful inclusion of a single analog design piece effectively does the same amount of work usually performed by a symphony orchestra.
Needless to say, analog design pieces can be powerful tools in translating large amounts of disparate information into a sensory experience. Chroma Flap is engineered to do exactly that. With sweeping, specially printed color palettes and near infinite options for customization, Chroma Flap empowers designers to create breathtaking visuals. From replicating specific images to near endless designs and gradients, Chroma Flap is a permanent moving canvas. Like the shishi-odoshi, Chroma Flap makes a pleasant, rhythmic sound as its colored panels softly rotate into position, cascading down like a soft rain or white noise.
The Nespresso NYC flagship split-flap (shown above) uses alphanumerical characters and custom-colored flaps to display the Nespresso logo, fun illustrations, and analog wallpapers.
Contemporary Case Study: Nespresso
Japanese gardens and the shishi-odoshi date back to the early 9th century, and Kill Bill: Volume 1 was released in 2003. To state the obvious, a lot has changed in the past 1200 (or even 20) years. So how can these lessons be applied in contemporary spaces? Especially in spaces purpose-built for brand expression?
Today’s designers are not frequently tasked with making tranquil, meditative gardens. Instead, they are challenged to create environments geared towards productivity, socialization, leisure, or some combination of the three. On top of these considerations, designers must also ensure that a brand’s identity is represented by the space, too. The cherry on top is the onus to make a space “Instagrammable” – which is shorthand for “interesting enough to post about.”
To address these different and sometimes-conflicting needs, designers have developed new dynamic and multi-sensory elements to carry out the functionality of a shishi-odoshi (sans deer-scaring). While Chroma Flap is an obvious example, it’s worth examining some other notable approaches. Take Nespresso’s flagship store in New York City.
Nespresso’s retail flagship features minimalist architecture with a neutral, monochromatic palette with tactile qualities like wood and metal. In the lobby is a customized mechanical display with custom color flaps, which cascade into patterns, pixel illustrations, and the Nespresso logo. It’s bold, memorable, and endlessly Instagrammable – perfectly mirroring Nespresso’s brand identity. The interior design choices complement the display, communicating the brand’s personality and values, while creating an engaging place for customers to shop and post.
Use Case: Oat Foundry’s custom kinetic wall installation, Chroma Flap, as a moving mural in transit and public spaces.
Pictured: 10 Rows x 56 Columns.
Use Case: Chroma Flap in the lobby of a corporate office or retail flagship to serve as a vibrant brand statement piece.
Pictured: 18 Rows x 64 Columns.
Data Visualization & Design: The Default Solution
While some brands explore fantastical solutions to translate information into experiences, the vast majority of spaces have reverted to the default: screens. In the digital age, screens are an easy, commonplace way to pipe in customized audiovisual elements to a designed space. They can very literally translate information into visuals and sound, but they have become ubiquitous to the point of invisibility – losing that key experiential element that makes a space engaging.
Aesthetic researchers have confirmed screens fail to engage. In fact, they have observed a phenomenon where passers-by actually deliberately avoid looking at screens since they’ve been conditioned to expect to see advertisements or unuseful information. Academics have coined this phrase “Display Blindness.”
In this study from University College London, researchers used eye-tracking technology to assess the time participants spent looking at digital screen displays while navigating a shopping center. From an average of 9 minutes and 43 seconds spent navigating the mall, participants looked at screens for just 4.9 seconds total. The mean time spent looking at any single digital screen display was 0.318 seconds.
Oat Foundry’s Chroma Flap uses subtle sound and movement to bring kinetic energy into a physical space.
Data Visualization & Design: Physical Presence in the Digital Age
Designers of the 21st century face a problem never before faced by any generation of taste makers. The spaces they create will not be the only space its occupants occupy. From hotel lobbies and cafes to city streets and sports arenas, people occupy both physical and digital spaces simultaneously. So what does this mean for designers of physical space?
A recently compiled literature review examines scholarly works on what the authors describe as the “imbrication of the physical environment and digital technology.” In layman’s terms, it is an assessment of how smart phones and the internet have fundamentally shifted the way people interact with physical space. The expansive paper makes note that this subject is a nascent field that has yet to establish a canon of scholarly work.
However, one takeaway from the overlapping studies is clear. Our relationship to physical space is changing. Large, public spaces are where physical space has ceded the most ground to digital. A Pew Research study found that 73% of people report using their phone in public “for no particular reason,” while 53% of people admit they use it to “avoid interacting with others.” As people recede further into their devices, it takes engaging spaces with an active, experiential element to pull people back to the here and now.
It’s this philosophy of experiential design that allows the brick-and-mortar stores to break through the digital noise. Spaces with multi-sensory experiential elements can actively engage people instead of passively allowing them to recede into digital spaces. The trick for designers going forwards will be to find solutions that capture those engaging, experiential elements that accurately represent a brand’s identity. So what might that look like?
Data Visualization & Design: Creating Physical Experiences With Chroma Flap
From the Heian period of Japanese history to the modern era, designers have long labored to create engaging places where information is communicated through sensory experiences. And though modern technology presents unique challenges to capturing attention, designers are innovating powerful methods to overcome those challenges. In the process, aesthetics and technology are combining in entirely new ways to create truly unforgettable places.
Chroma Flap, pictured above, represents one such combination. It has roots in the past, based on analog technology from the heyday of retro-futurism when Split Flap displays could be found at train stations and airports around the world. But at the same time, Chroma Flap has a foot firmly planted in the present era. It allows for near infinite customization, and can be programmed with bespoke artwork, designs, gradients, or data visualizations.
In that regard, Chroma Flap is a show of force. It’s best utilized as a center piece, with the surrounding space designed around it as an anchor. It presents visuals in a uniquely analog style, with colorful panels rotating and clicking into place. While people actively avoid looking at bright, loud screens, Chroma Flap’s unexpectedly gentle sound calls attention without demanding it and its engaging kinetic motion holds attention, rooting viewers in their own two feet in the here-and-now.
Spaces – whether snowy Japanese gardens used as venues for katana fights or bustling public forums filled with passers-by – are dramatically improved when they are thoughtfully designed with bespoke analog elements that combine aesthetic, informational, and experiential uses into a single, elegant form.