Passengers BCN

Physical sculptures created from Barcelona airport passenger numbers during COVID

Using official passenger data from Barcelona airport, Passengers: BCN reveals the causal effect of the COVID pandemic from 2019 – 2021 realised as physical data-driven sculptures fused with digital projection.

Already it seems the pandemic was a distant memory, having quickly gone back to living our lives much as they were before the effect of COVID. By creating physical objects which punctuate the surrounding space we can see the memory of these events in a more real way. We can see how before the pandemic much of air travel just from one airport creates a large unmistakable mass. Yet in 2020 – when air travel was highly restricted – we see a smaller object, surrounded by silence, with colours evocative of the now clearer skies.

I always say "Data by itself is not enough; data needs poetry." It's through work such as this – inter- actions with the digital and physical realms – we might better understand the effect of technology in all its forms upon our world.

Created for Digital Impact, Barcelona, 2023