Where does our rubbish actually go? When is water consumption at the highest point in the week? How is passenger traffic distributed in a city? These and many similar questions will be addressed by “VIDAN” starting in autumn 2019. Vidan stands for “Visual and Dynamic Arrangements of Narratives” and is a new project of the Urban Complexity Lab (UCLAB), an interdisciplinary research group at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam. For three years, the UCLAB scientists will be occupied with new forms of data visualisation of urban infrastructure. The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Existing data from utility companies will be collected, processed, visualised and provided with explanatory texts by the researchers and designers. The aim is to present and explain complex interrelationships in an appealing design to politicians and the business community as well as interested citizens in an comprehensible, creative and critical way. Some data sets are still missing before the project can really get going. These are currently still being gathered, and, of course, in line with DSGVO regulations. The responsible handling of data and algorithms is a top priority at UCLAB.
