Nebulae
‘Nebulae’ is a real-time generative and data art installation designed specifically for Charlottesville’s environment, visualizing often overlooked or ‘nebulous’ environmental changes. For the convenience of the viewers, I have included links to a timeline of outputs since installation and test outputs.
The piece is fed-in sensor data from The Device, which captures the area’s light, humidity, temperature, pressure, AQI (air quality), and CO2 levels and feeds them into the live art piece. It features a current look at the environment as well as a comparative look at both the averages of the last 24-hours and since installation. The Device is placed on the roof of the building to best reflect the immediate environment of this building.
Each of these data points affects Nebulae in its own way:
● Light affects the brightness of a nebula, making it more vibrant as light is increased (Range: 0 - 4095 lux)
● Humidity affects the definition of a nebula’s shape, with a rounder shape in more humid conditions (0 - 100%)
● Temperature affects a nebula’s color, with red representing hot and blue representing cold (-14°F - 101°F)
● Pressure affects the size of a nebula, expanding in low-pressure environments (980 - 1050 hPa)
● AQI affects the texture and waves of noise pulsating through a nebula with more texture in higher AQI. A higher AQI reflects more pollutants in the air (0 - 300+)
● CO2 affects the size of the hole in the middle of a nebula, increasing as CO2 increases (200 - 1500 ppm)
The range for temperature and pressure values have been established based on 2023 highs and lows for Charlottesville.
By visualizing this data, ‘Nebulae’ empowers viewers to better perceive the changes in the environment around them throughout the day and over time, inspiring viewers to reflect on the intricate and often unseen connections between us and the natural world.
The piece is built entirely using p5.js and leveraging data from sensors on The Device. In order to best collect data, The Device has been placed on the roof of the building.
The piece is best viewed on a desktop with a portrait-oriented screen at a 9:16 aspect ratio in Google Chrome.
Pete Cybriwsky
Pete Cybriwsky is an entrepreneur and artist building at the intersection of data and art. He is currently based out of New York where he is running n-gen, a studio that works with consumer applications to turn their user’s personal data into unique, dynamic, digital art.
Beyond n-gen, Cybriwsky creates generative art and data art influenced by the world around him, using technology like The Device to gather data about the environment to reflect in a real-time dynamic art piece.
Outside of this, Cybriwsky is an avid runner, tinkerer, and listener of music. Prior to founding n-gen, Cybriwsky studied engineering and computer science at the University of Virginia and worked in digital product marketing and design at Prophet.
To stay up-to-date with Cybriwsky and his work, you can follow him on Twitter or Instagram and read some of his longer-form thoughts on Substack.
Cybriwsky is an alumnus of the University of Virginia where he earned an undergraduate degree in computer science in 2019.
