Our ability to understand and navigate the challenges of this world depends on our ability to see and know what is happening around us. We find ourselves interconnected through instant communication that give us a window into the issues and ideas that concern different communities around the world.
How the World Sees maps the visual flow of real-time news stories from media outlets around the world in an immersive, living map. The experiment captures and visualizes headline news in different ways to reveal a dynamic and ever-changing global dialogue about who we are as human beings.
How the World Sees was commissioned for the deTour 2020: Matter of Life design festival in Hong Kong.
Headline news from over 50 countries is requested throughout the day. Due to the variability of available data, not all countries are represented and not all headline news provide accessible images. The number of news items displayed is based on the geographical area as represented by a pixelated Mercator projection and not on the number of news sources available in a country. The overall visualization provides a visual snapshot of how news is seen around the world.
Design: Synoptic Office
Concept & Direction: Caspar Lam, YuJune Park
Research Team: Mi Chen, Claire Zhang
We would like to thank Adonian Chan, Chris Tsui Sau Yi, and Louise Ng of Trilingua Design as well as Kayan Lee, Diana Man, Sharon Cheng, Kenix Ho, Amber Kei, Jack Pun, and the entire PMQ team for making this work possible.
An Experimental News Viewer
by Synoptic Office
Scroll/pinch to zoom. Drag to pan.
For best experience, view in a Chromium-based browser like Edge or Chrome.