VESSEL

The city is a vast organism, sustained by the movement of countless people. Each day, millions travel through Seoul toward work, home, and other destinations, generating the city’s daily pulse. VESSEL is an interactive data sculpture that connects this urban pulse with the heartbeat of the viewer.

Based on one year of Seoul mobility big data, the work analyzes more than eight million movement logs per day at one-minute intervals. It translates the inflow, outflow, and internal movement of Seoul’s 25 districts into sculptural form.

Every geometric element is determined by data: the number of people moving through each district defines its thickness, the proportion of each movement type determines its length, and actual movement speed is mapped to the speed of its flux. Viewers can rotate the sculpture or move along the time axis to trace the city’s shifting patterns. When they touch the pulse sensor, Seoul’s daily pulse synchronizes with their own heartbeat, transforming the city from an abstract system of data into a living vessel that pulses with the viewer.