Transforming data into meaningful stories
Tiziana Alocci is a London-based behavioural cartographer, data artist, and lecturer. Her work explores the emotional dimension of data, creating immersive "maps" that translate human behaviour, emotions, and memories into visual and auditory experiences interlacing science with poetry.
National Gallery - Maps of paintings
An experimental mapping project commissioned by the National Gallery in London to discover how some of the National Gallery’s National Treasures have moved through time.
Celebrating the National Gallery's 200th anniversary, data artist Tiziana Alocci presents Maps of Paintings, a prototype digital experience that brings the hidden journeys of the Gallery’s National Treasures to life.
Maps of Paintings is an experimental mapping project commissioned by the National Gallery to allow visitors to join in celebrating the National Gallery’s 200th anniversary of connecting people with paintings. This innovative project uses data to trace the fascinating movement of twelve iconic paintings from the Gallery's collection, revealing where they have travelled and the stories they carry through each location.
Maps of Paintings explores how data can deepen our understanding of artworks and invites audiences to view these pieces through an unexpected lens.
Read the full interview with Tiziana Alocci on the National Gallery’s website
National Gallery’s National Treasures
With ‘National Treasures’, more than half the UK population will be within an hour's journey of a National Gallery’s masterpiece. Maps of Paintings is inspired by John Berger's book "Ways of Seeing." This project reveals the invisible, showing ways of seeing paintings never imagined before. The project aims to focus on accessibility and how paintings and their information can be made more accessible to people.
Reflecting on the project, Alocci states, "My work with Maps of Paintings aims to make art accessible, transforming how we view these masterpieces by placing the audience at the narrative's centre. Inspired by John Berger’s Ways of Seeing, the project seeks to make the unseen visible. This is about people and their personal connection to art – viewers can locate themselves within the map, seeing paintings orbit around them, merging personal experiences with the artwork's historical travels."
Read the full interview with Tiziana Alocci on the National Gallery website
A look at Diego Velasquez’s ‘The Toilet of Venus’ through Maps of Paintings
Mapping the Gallery’s Rich Archives
Tiziana has created a network map for each painting, showcasing its display locations since its acquisition. On these maps, venues are represented as nodes—their size indicates the duration of the painting's stay. Connecting lines represent journeys, with line thickness reflecting how recently the travel occurred.
Museums and galleries hold vast amounts of data on their collections, from historical provenance to scientific information about pigments and techniques. Maps of Paintings demonstrates the potential of data visualisation to unlock these archives, providing audiences with new ways to engage with art. When introduced to the National Gallery team, Alocci's prototype elicited an immediate and personal response, sparking curiosity not only about the paintings themselves but also about the connections they reveal across time and place.
Alocci envisions a future where data reveals even more hidden layers within museum collections. She remarks, "I'd love to explore archives of intangible data – scents, colours, even sounds – to uncover the connections that link science with art, and art with the everyday. Each piece holds a story that can be made accessible through data, allowing audiences to see the invisible and connect with art in a deeply personal way."
A special thanks to the National Gallery team for their outstanding collaboration on this project.
Read the full interview with Tiziana Alocci on the National Gallery website
Tiziana Alocci working on Maps of Paintings in her studio
Alocci is intrigued by the amount of data museums possess—not just historical data about paintings or sculptures, but also how this information is organised and used by both internal teams and the public. Technological advancements, particularly in mechanical reproduction, have transformed the nature, reception, and purpose of art in modern society, as Walter Benjamin discusses in The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. This area holds potential worth investigating. The vast amount of data presents a significant opportunity for museums and art institutions to engage viewers more actively, fostering a genuine connection between art and the public. In this way, art isn't merely there to be seen, but also to be understood and explored in novel ways.
Read the full interview with Tiziana Alocci on the National Gallery website
UNIT London: Emotional Geography
Releasing exclusively via Unit London Editions, the print series is the result of Alocci’s extensive travels over the past years, as she records the world around her.
The Emotional Geography series is the result of Alocci’s extensive travels over the past years, as wherever she visits she records the world around her. This documentation has evolved into a personal archive for the artist, containing not just all the photographic and sonic data she has amassed but also the memories and emotions attached to her recorded experiences.
Each of the limited edition prints in the collection captures two different moments in one artwork: The first is the audio recording from each city, as seen in the white spheres made up of thousands of tendril-like individual lines, and the second is Alocci’s own heartbeat, with her pulse taken as she listens back to the original recording. The heartbeat on each print is seen in the dotted line orbiting the central circle, a hand-finished chrome detail by the artist.
Learn more about the series here.
Tiziana Alocci
'Emotional Geography', 2024
Archival Pigment Print on Hahnemuhle German Etching 310gsm paper, with cut edges.
Hand-finished by the artist with chrome ink details.
Hand-signed and numbered by the artist
9 x Editions of 3
70 x 70 cm
The nine cities Alocci transformed from sonic data into fine art prints include Berlin, Budapest, Copenhagen, Genoa, Holbox, London, Mexico City, New York City, and Venice.
The importance of the second and reactive listening is that Alocci only records specific moments of overwhelming happiness; these can occur randomly and spontaneously, but when they do the artist is impelled to record her immediate environment to remember the experience, immortalising what would otherwise be an ephemeral instant. Listening to the audio of the moment is akin to reliving it for the artist, and the physical response to this wave of happy memory is what is recorded in the heartbeat on each print.
Central to Alocci’s practice is the way sound can potently retrigger emotions, and transport the artist back to the time and place of each city, able to reconstruct a moment and tell a story from only the recorded sound clips. It is rare that a personal story linked to a certain phenomenon can be relatable for others who were not present at the time, yet it is a specific motivation for Alocci to translate intimate and objective data into relatable and comprehensible narratives for audiences.
Tokyo Love Story: Electromagnetic Sounds of Tokyo
Tokyo Love Story: A Sensory Journey Through The Acoustic Vibrations of the Lights of Tokyo is a solo show by Alocci exploring the hidden electromagnetic pulse of Tokyo's urban landscape.
“Tokyo Love Story: A Sensory Journey Through The Acoustic Vibration of the Lights of Tokyo”, is a solo exhibition of works by Tiziana Alocci presented by ArtMoore House in London from October 2024 (by appointment only).
Tokyo Love Story explores the hidden electromagnetic pulse of Tokyo's urban landscape. Through a series of audio recordings and data visualisation techniques, this exhibition transforms Tokyo's vibrant sounds into a visual experience. Considering the sensory experience as a new form for envisioning and understanding how we actually feel a space we quickly realise that what is captured by our eyes is just one of the facets of the prismatic experience that map our perception.
All of the artworks on show are for sale and if you wish to have more information or participate in one of our private exhibition tours please contact: Elisa Martinelli - www.artmoorhouse.com - info@ArtMoorHouse.com or Tiziana Alocci - hello@tizianaalocci.com
Tiziana Alocci, C'est Bien, Archival Print on Epson Semi Gloss, framed. 101 x 101 cm.
The image of a place is not what it first appears to be. Alocci slows down the process of looking and thinking inviting the viewer to experience the invisible forces that shape the unique character of Tokyo’s most iconic districts. In her Tokyo Love Story collection, Alocci explores the acoustic fingerprints of the silent objects which inhabit our urban environments.
By visualising the pulsating rhythms of Akihabara's adult store LED signage, the electronic hum of Shinjuku's neon-lit karaoke bars, Ueno's pedestrian crossing signals, and the subtle electronic pulse of an Omotesando vending machine, this exhibition captures the diverse technological essence of Tokyo's districts.
Each artwork is originated by an audio-reactive animation. Animated version of each artworks are available on request.
The artist, in her creative practice is able to create a visual syntax that bring to life the sonic and visual properties of the unheard and invisible by revealing electromagnetic sounds from light sources.
All of the artworks on show are for sale and if you wish to have more information or participate in one of our exhibition tours please contact: Elisa Martinelli - www.artmoorhouse.com - info@ArtMoorHouse.com or Tiziana Alocci - hello@tizianaalocci.com
Artwork list
Okura: This electromagnetic recording captures the ethereal remnants of digital life from an abandoned advertising display in the heart of Shibuya, Tokyo.
“Day 8 in Shibuya: Stumbled upon an abandoned advertising display today. It was eerie, standing there in the heart of such a bustling area. As I placed my recorder near it, I could almost hear whispers of its past life. The faint electromagnetic pulses felt like ghosts of forgotten advertisements. It was a stark reminder of how quickly technology moves on in this city. I sat there for a while, imagining all the ads it must have shown, all the people who must have looked at it. It made me feel small, but also connected to the city's history in a weird way.” – Tiziana
C’Est Bien: Spectrum frequency visualisation from the sound of a pedestrian crossing signal in Ueno, Tokyo.
“Day 2 in Ueno: The pedestrian crossing signals here are unlike anything I've seen before. I recorded the sound and visualised its frequency spectrum. It's fascinating how something so mundane orchestrates the movement of thousands. As I stood there, watching people cross in waves, I realised these sounds are the heartbeat of Tokyo's streets. I wanted to cross with my eyes closed, just following the sound. I felt like I was part of a big, invisible dance. Made me wonder how many times I've been guided by sounds I never really noticed before.” – Tiziana
Pop Life: This audio recording captures the electromagnetic frequencies emanating from a neon sign of a popular karaoke establishment in the bustling Shinjuku district of Tokyo.
“Day 4 in Shinjuku: Karaoke night! But instead of singing, I found myself attracted by the neon sign outside. Its electromagnetic frequencies created a unique soundscape that felt like Tokyo's nightlife distilled into audio form. The pulsating rhythms matched the energy of the partygoers around me. I wonder if anyone else notices this hidden symphony of the city. I stood there for ages, just listening. My friends thought I was barmy, but I couldn't help it. It was like the city was singing its own karaoke song, and I was the only one who could hear it.” – Tiziana
Topaz: This electromagnetic recording captures the subtle hum and electronic pulse emanating from the illuminated display of a vending machine in the fashionable Omotesando district of Tokyo.
“Day 6 in Omotesando: Remember Toy Story, where toys come alive when humans aren't looking? I've always wondered if inanimate objects truly animate when unobserved. This vending machine seemed to speak to me. I spent an hour today recording the subtle hum from it, I wanted to give it a voice like a Toy Story character.” – Tiziana
Love Merci: Electromagnetic frequencies captured from the LED wall sign of an adult shop in the heart of Akihabara, Tokyo's electric town.
“Day 7 in Akihabara: Electric Town lived up to its name today. I recorded electromagnetic frequencies from a sex shop's LED wall sign. It felt a bit awkward standing there with my equipment, but the result was worth it. It perfectly encapsulated the district's pulsating energy and futuristic vibe. I closed my eyes and let the sounds around wash over me, feeling like I was experiencing Akihabara on a whole new level. A couple of people gave me funny looks, but one actually stopped to listen with me. We didn't speak, just stood there nodding. It was a weird but cool moment of connection.” – Tiziana
Love Merci is available in four colour combinations: Pink, Cyan, White, and Green. Each piece is different but generated from the same sound.
C’Est Bien: Spectrum frequency visualisation from the sound of a pedestrian crossing signal in Ueno, Tokyo.
All of the artworks on show are for sale and if you wish to have more information or participate in one of our exhibition tours please contact: Elisa Martinelli - www.artmoorhouse.com - info@ArtMoorHouse.com or Tiziana Alocci - hello@tizianaalocci.com
Sonic Tides: When Noise Pollution Becomes Visible
Sonic Tides translates 24 hours of collected airport sound data into powerful ocean waves through audio-reactive projections.
Sonic Tides transforms aircraft noise pollution into an immersive installation, giving visible form to an invisible crisis affecting 2.2 million residents near London Heathrow Airport.
While numerous studies document airport noise levels, this project pioneers the artistic visualisation of this persistent environmental challenge, which is particularly urgent as Heathrow plans its expansion.
Moving beyond conventional sound wave representations, Sonic Tides reimagines aircraft noise as powerful ocean waves through audio-reactive projections. This immersive installation translates 24 hours of collected airport sound data into an engulfing audiovisual experience, where the intensity of aircraft noise manifests as increasingly turbulent digital tsunamis that surge across walls and floors.
By merging field recordings with advanced data visualisation techniques, Sonic Tides creates a visceral narrative that allows viewers to experience the daily acoustic assault on local communities. The installation renders the abstract concept of noise pollution into a tangible, emotionally resonant experience, fostering public dialogue about urban sound environments and their impact on human well-being.
Sonic Tides confronts visitors with an urgent environmental crisis hiding in plain sight. For young people especially, the installation triggers a powerful moment of recognition: the constant background noise they've grown up with isn't normal or inevitable – it's an emergency demanding attention.
The experience sparks immediate questions: "Why have we accepted this invasion of our sonic space?" "How is this affecting my community's health?" These questions intensify as viewers realise that airport expansion plans threaten to amplify this invisible assault on their well-being. For many young visitors, this becomes their first awakening to environmental injustice in their own backyard.
This realisation often transforms into action. People leave Sonic Tides with a new vocabulary for their daily experience and tools to challenge the status quo. Many report watching flight paths differently, starting conversations about noise pollution at school, or questioning why some communities bear a heavier burden of environmental stress than others. The installation's emotional impact catalyses a deeper understanding of how urban development choices affect the quality of life, inspiring a new generation to demand healthier, more equitable cities.
Lufthansa Group – Voyages of Wonder
Miles & More, a Lufthansa Group initiative, commissioned a series of gifts to loyal clients in the form of bespoke data portraits of their travels.
How I transformed frequent flyers data into unique data portraits.
“Voyages of Wonder” is a gift from Miles & More to their most loyal clients. Imagine if every flight you took could create a unique shape, telling a story of your travels. That was the case for passengers whose journeys have been reimagined into a series of bespoke data portraits.
The process of turning data into art starts with numbers. In this context, each dataset is like a personal diary, an unopened letter containing moments to remember.
“My artworks will be entering the homes of many people, and I want these pieces to feel relevant and significant to their new owners. Not less importantly, I aim for each piece to blend seamlessly with the surrounding environment.”
Digital render of one artwork during the test phase.
Someone once said that art is intentional making with unintentional outcomes. This holds true in every data-driven piece I do. While data visualisation tools can automate the process, I believe it is crucial to transcend the basic representation of data and connect with the viewer on an emotional level.
Transforming raw data into a meaningful story requires a deep understanding of the subject matter and a keen eye for detail. It is through this meticulous process that I am able to breathe life into the data and create something impactful and relatable.
Similarly, in “Voyages of Wonders" I sought to transform the mundane data of flight frequencies, destinations, and durations into abstract photographs. Each piece is a visual representation of its individual travel story.
“As I read the numbers, I translate these raw statistics into a language of forms and hierarchies.”
The Process
It all starts with numbers – a log of flights and destinations.
The transformation is a meticulous process, which I have precisely documented with sketches and video recordings. It is where intuition meets code and data visualisation conventions.
Each piece is customised based on individual passenger data, making no two pieces look the same.
Each line represents a flight route, with its size determined by the length of the route flown – the longer the line, the greater the distance from departure to arrival.
Then, I visualised frequency by adjusting the thickness of the lines – thicker lines represent routes that have been flown more frequently.
The Generative Tool
The key factor that contributed to the success of this release was the custom generative tool created in collaboration with Francisco Estivallet.
View of the custom tool.
The custom-made tool interprets the data points to generate print-ready artwork quickly. This tool, called "VOW," not only streamlines the creative workflow but also ensures that each piece remains distinctive and true to the data it represents.
“When it comes to printing or installing my work, sustainability is a non-negotiable aspect. It was essential to strike the right balance between incorporating data and making each piece environmentally friendly for printing.”
Colour test featuring a rejected version of the visualisation. The more lines, the more routes were flown by a passenger.
Final Piece(s) And Packaging
Each unique art piece from the "Voyages of Wonder" series is carefully packaged in a custom box, accompanied by a hand-signed note. The artwork itself is signed, printed, and mounted on Aluminium Dibond support. The attention to detail in the packaging ensures that each customer receives a truly special and personalised experience when they receive their artwork.
The custom box not only protects the artwork during transit but also adds an element of anticipation and excitement as the recipient opens it to reveal their one-of-a-kind piece.
Credits: Thanks to TRACK GmbH, Miles & More, and Lufthansa Group for this beautiful collaboration.
The Orb & Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour
Limited edition of 25 hand-numbered and signed prints to celebrate the album Metallic Spheres in Colour by The Orb and Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour.
In an era where art intersects so frequently with technology, this project signifies the fusion of both. Commissioned as a limited-edition fine art prints to celebrate the album Metallic Spheres in Colour – a collaboration between The Orb and Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour – the spirit of the album was reimagined through data visualization using sonic data.
This project saw the transformation of recurring rituals – specifically the act of listening and taking notes about songs – into a visually stimulating narrative. The process began with analysing sonic data from the album's tracks. Each track's unique acoustic signature was transformed into circular, abstract visuals. This transmutation of sound to sight was both a technical and artistic challenge – countless hours were spent sketching, experimenting, and fine-tuning, using hand-drawn sketches and a system of purposefully developed digital tools. The result was a visualization that was both mathematically precise and emotionally evocative.
This work joins with a wider exploration of sound transmutation in Tiziana’s portfolio. Visualisation of emotions abound. Using sonic data, artworks capture moments of grief and passion, weaving audio recordings from life into detailed, circular abstract visuals.
View time-lapse videos on Tiziana Alocci's Instagram for artwork creation.
Discarded versions
Robertet Group – Visualising perfumes
A series of 32 unique data portraits for the Robertet Group, visualising the essence of their perfumes and aromas.
Commissioned to visualise the complex essence of perfumes and aromas, Scented Connections culminated as a series of 30 unique data portraits for the Robertet Group. These artworks portrayed the network of ingredients used to create a scent, as provided by the artisans who so finely craft them.
Inspired by the intricate web of relationships and forms in nature, each portrait represented a unique 'olfactory fingerprint,' charting the journey of a fragrance from creation to use. The artwork aimed to capture the invisible threads that bind perfumers and their fragrances, transforming complex data into a visual composition of intersecting lines, nodes, and patterns. As observers look deeper into the artwork, they become immersed in a visual arrangement that reveals the interconnectedness of scent and human experience. Aroma notes cascade and converge, mirroring the harmonious collaborations and creative exchanges that breathe life into the final fragrant product.
This series aimed to celebrate the craftsmanship behind distinct perfumes, inviting viewers to contemplate their own place within the intricate composition of fragrance. The Robertet Group was essential to the success of the work, providing access to the dataset around the fragrance production, and allowing creative freedom on how this information might be interpreted and visualised.
The British Library
Commissioned by The British Library in 2019, Visualising Victorian News came together as an exhibition using data from digitised British Library newspapers to explore themes from 19th-century news and reimagine aspects of British 19th-century history.
Commissioned by The British Library in 2019, Visualising Victorian News came together as an exhibition using data from digitised British Library newspapers to explore themes from 19th-century news and reimagine aspects of British 19th-century history. The show included artworks Crime & Tattoo and Time, Fire, House, which looked into the world of convict tattoos, and the language used to describe the Crimean War respectively.
The artworks shed light onto the broader exhibition's rich exploration of Victorian news, and newly brought the art of historical data visualization into the walls of The British Library.
Crime and Tattoo
The work Crime & Tattoo reconstructed criminals' lives through the display of tattoo art, visualising an enduring and often the stereotyped relationship between the two. Data from The Digital Panopticon project, which details 76,000 convict tattoos, supported the conception and research framework for the artwork.
Tiziana Alocci, Crime and Tattoo, 2019; Courtesy of British Library.
Celestial maps such as John Seller's 1675 edition, inspired the work’s structure, dividing the composition into crime stories on the left and tattoo displays on the right.
John Seller, Map of the two hemispheres of the heavens, 1675.
Time, Fire, House
Time, Fire, House was created as a means to visualise language used around reports of the Crimean War within 19th-century newspapers, highlighting terms shaping British readers' war perceptions. Mechanical watch gears inspired the artwork's design, with each circle representing a year of war. The coverage’s fifty most frequently used words were extracted and coloured by category (places, nationalities, casualties, military actions, and public affairs), each illuminating the evolving focuses of wartime reportage.
Tiziana Alocci, Time, fine, house, 2019; Courtesy of British Library.
Tiziana Alocci, detail of ‘Time, Fire House’, 2019; Courtesy of British Library.
Preparation sketches and final installation
Robertet Group – Digital Immersive Exhibition
The Robertet Group's Scented Connections exhibition gave form to 15 million data points on perfumes, with 30 data portraits being crafted as representations of 100 recent formulas by the team’s artisans.
The exhibition, Scented Connections, showcased 15 million data points as a means of illustrating the intangible qualities of perfumes. An interactive display featured 30 data portraits crafted for the Robertet Group in collaboration with French agency Artefact 3000. Each portrait was based on the most recent 100 fragrance formulas crafted by Robertet's artisans.
Working with Artefact 3000, the portraits were digitised and exhibited in a digital gallery, aiming to showcase the richness, complexity, and creativity of Robertet's artisans to a broader audience. The project intended to marry unlikely processes together – specifically, the fusion of ancient perfume-making processes with modern data visualization.
The Robertet Group, a leader in the perfumery industry, had a dual objective to honour its artisans and embrace the power of digital transformation. The project’s challenge was to demonstrate how modern data could enhance a craft rooted in a longstanding tradition of hand-borne instinct. By creating unique portraits for each perfumer, the exhibition sought to make the invisible art of perfume creation visible. In short, Tiziana used numbers to paint a picture of scent.
Scented Connections, was presented as an immersive experience at the VivaTech conference in Paris and it has been named a Lovie Awards Winner for People’s Lovie in Best Design, and Silver in Best Design (Websites & Mobile Sites).
Team Credit
Client: Robertet Group
Agency: Studio Artefact 3000
Artist: Tiziana Alocci
Tiziana Alocci with the Robertet Group and Artefact 3000 teams in Paris.
Shoreditch Arts Club x Commune
An immersive, audio-reactive video installation exploring human emotions and the yearning for acknowledgement. Premiered on March 1st 2024 at the Shoreditch Arts Club in London.
I See You is an immersive, audio-reactive video installation that examines human emotion. The piece emblemises the unspoken thoughts and emotions that eternally seek acknowledgement and acceptance in people’s minds. It captures the silent moments that hold longing for understanding, and the human desire to be seen as one’s true, unfiltered self.
The installation reflects the profound yearning and emotional depth of being authentically seen. It celebrates human connection, authenticity, and the beauty of vulnerability. I See You premiered on March 1st 2024 at the Shoreditch Arts Club in London, UK, alongside five physical sonic visualizations from the Necessity Collection.
The piece illuminated the venue’s darkened ambience, amplifying its impact with viewers. In its constant motion, the work reflected the ceaselessness of inner thoughts, which rarely hold form for long.
Wired UK
Data visualisation compositions on topics like SpaceX, submarine cables, and video games were designed to bring clarity to complex issues commissioned by Wired UK.
A series of data visualizations were created for Wired UK, transposing information on topics like SpaceX, submarine cables, and video games into compositions that could bring clarity to complex issues. Created in close dialogue with the publication’s editorial team, each gave raw information a distinctly composed aesthetic, enhancing the magazine’s content and data legibility. These visualizations not only enhanced WIRED UK's editorial content, but also provided readers with insightful and visually engaging interpretations of complex data.
100 Hottest Startups, 2023
For the 100 Hottest Startups special issue of WIRED UK, published in both 2022 and 2023, comprehensive guides to Europe's startup ecosystem were visualised, showcasing evolving tech sectors and investment trends.
SpaceX and the recycled space race, 2022
In another feature, SpaceX and the Recycled Space Race, from May 2023, designs highlighted SpaceX's transformative Falcon 9 launches and booster landings, underscoring the affordability of reusable rockets.
All over the map, 2022
In All Over the Map from September 2023, the expansive worlds of video games like GTA 3 and Death Stranding were explored, correlating playable areas with gameplay hours.
Breaking the loop, 2023
Breaking the Loop, published in March 2023, mapped global submarine cables crucial for international data transmission, illustrating their role in global connectivity.
Data-driven album cover series 2019-23
Beginning in 2019, this project saw the creation of twelve album covers for a Berlin-based record company.
Beginning in 2019, this project saw the creation of a series of album covers for the Berlin-based record label Sum Over Histories. Each cover artwork began with a habitual listening phase – playing artists’ songs alongside daily activities. The most resonant track was selected and visualised using a central circle motif, inspired by architectural elements and celestial phenomena.
Each cover artwork was started with a list of songs by one artist. The process began with habitual listening, and playing the songs during daily activities like working, resting, and running. The most resonant track was then chosen as the album's ambassador. The next step was visualization, consistently featuring the circle as a central motif. The radial formation for each cover was inspired by architectural elements – such as stained glass, windows and domes – and celestial phenomena – like planets and galaxies. These visual prompts shaped the abstraction of the selected song’s waveform. The sound's anatomy, pre-visualised within a frequency graph, became optically tangible as a circular form.
In the final phase, the existing frequency marks were manipulated to reflect the emotional and intuitive vibrations evoked by the song. This converted the static waveform into fluid, sense-driven patterns. The visual markers pointed to sensations derived from the song, varying between spiky or sharp, blurred or wavy. Some emulated characteristics of flowers or jellyfish, reflecting the initial experience of consuming the song elementally.
Saint Is, Something in Common EP, 2019
Invoker, RA EP, 2020
Saint Is, Before We Get Old EP, 2020
Various artists, Path Integral IV, 2020
Imperieux, Modus Operandi, 2021
Flageolet, Tension EP, 2021
Ivory, Let the Mistery Be EP, 2021
Aldebaran, Severe EP, 2021
Skatman, Trial and Error EP, 2021
Ross From Friends, Thesho, 2022
Boys Be KKo, Lop Nor, 2022
‘Necessity’ – Visualising soundscapes
‘Necessity’, inspired by the Quantified-Self movement in art, is a series of audio-visual, data-driven transmutations of sounds recorded by the artist.
‘Necessity’ was born out of a legacy of self-exploratory work. It draws influence from the technical rigour of information design and data visualisation yet expands into an oeuvre that sees commonality with Conceptual Art, Process Art, and a movement that concerns itself with the quantified self. It embodies a continuity of themes that have been both implicitly and explicitly interrogated over many years of artistic production.
The idea for the series began through conversations around the transference of sound data into visuality. In earlier works, raw sound material takes the form of music recorded by external artists, in Necessity, the raw sound data becomes oral landscapes of the self. As such, the series is an extended visualisation of the unification between sound and two-dimensional form, only working with sonic matter that consistently begins and ends with the artist – at times including one other person, or ambient sounds within the environment. Raw sound material might have included breathing sounds recorded over a night’s sleep, the sounds of a walk across a landscape, or the undulating breaths of shared intimacy.
The resulting series includes eight large-scale fine art prints belonging to a limited edition, each individually signed and numbered. Every piece in the series is available in two colour schemes: a light and a dark version. Two pieces from the series have been acquired by C3 Residency in Mexico City and are now part of its permanent collection. Others are on display at the Shoreditch Arts Club in London and at Einraum in Berlin.
‘Victoria (night)’ and ‘Victoria (dawn)’ have been acquired by C3 Residency in Mexico City and are now part of its permanent collection.
Victoria
Data visualisation of 2:45 minutes of birdsong recorded in Victoria Park, London. Victoria visualises a walk in London’s Victoria Park, taken on a sunny day amidst the sound of human activity, birdsong and other sounds becoming part of the white noise characteristic of an outdoor stroll. This soundscape converted into the pilot piece for the Necessity Collection, its formal characteristics referencing the section of a tree and its concentric circles.
Morpheús
Data visualisation of 6 hours, 46 minutes from one night’s sleep. A few years ago, when Tiziana began struggling with insomnia, she decided to record ambient noises during sleep to determine if external sounds were causing her restless nights. In this pursuit, Morpheus chronicled the sounds and rhythms of breath throughout one night's sleep, using these recordings as a sample to understand habitual sleeping patterns. This investigation into the patterns of a restless sleeper revealed a broken circle representing broken sleep, questioning whether external noises trigger moments of waking or if it is merely the provocation of the unconscious mind. This artwork is currently on display and available for sale at Einraum Berlin.
The Photograph We Never Took
Data visualisation of two voices. This work follows Tiziana’s father's death in 2019 and contemplates their relationship and the loss of her favourite photograph. Retracing this lost photograph prompted her to enlist voice recordings to recreate the image of the bond between them. The sound forms of the two voices join together as two uniting circles, replacing the missing photograph. This artwork has been featured in: Nightingale Magazine issue 2, Page Magazine, Design Matters Copenhagen, Beyond Tellerand Berlin, and part of the group show “Exploring Grief And Loss”, Willesden Gallery London (UK).
Stay There
Data visualisation of 8:27 minutes recording of intimate moments. Capturing the swaying breath of a couple enraptured by their intimacy, Stay There is the only work within the Necessity Collection that includes two identical circles. Representing the proximity of two lovers, the rings do not signify two separate waveforms but embody the physicality of two bodies and sets of breathing. Blurred frequencies emblematise their intertwining, sensual motion, heightened by the deep red colour that stains the canvas with inferred passion. The artwork is currently on display and available for sale (framed) at Einraum Berlin and at Shoreditch Arts Club in London.
Morpheús – Visualising sleep data
In October 2021, a long period of sleepless nights in a new London flat inspired the creation of Morpheus, a visual art piece showing sound waves representing broken sleep.
In October 2021, a period of insomnia led to the creation of Morpheus, a visual representation of sound waves that represented the patterns of disrupted sleep. Part of the Necessity Collection, it symbolises a reclaiming control through the recording and visualising of data – giving shape to patterns in sleep behaviour that cannot be controlled. Using an audio recording device, ambient noises and body movements were captured throughout the night. After weeks of data collection, patterns emerged, such as evidence of regular early morning bus noises from the street below disrupting sleep.
The noise, though not loud enough to fully awaken, was sufficient to interrupt sleep. This ultimately led to the creation of Morpheus, a fusion of art and science that visualised the recorded sound data. Each brushstroke and curve on the canvas represented sound waves moving through time, with lines showing the amplitude of sonic vibrations. A broken circle in the artwork symbolises the disrupted sleep, peaking in the early morning.
The process for Morpheus involved recording ambient noises every night for two months. This signifies Tiziana’s wider practice, which involves consistently collecting data through various mediums like writing and sound recording, often over extended periods. This has resulted in a large archive, an analogue record of moments from life. This data intricately intertwines with personal metrics, including physical aspects such as breathing patterns and social dimensions like quantifiable interactions.
Morpheús (night), 2022, 101.6 cm x 101.6 cm, Giclée print archival inks. Limited edition of 10, numbered and signed.
Visualising the voices of Ukrainian refugees
Liberty Leading The People amplifies Ukrainian refugees' stories into a poignant composition – a totem that symbolised freedom and justice amid Europe's conflicts.
The artwork, Liberty Leading the People, was showcased at L’Officina Arte Contemporanea during the premiere of the documentary Tales from the Border. The work’s objective was to amplify the voices of Ukrainian refugees' and was created in 2022 with Capslock Magazine. Liberty Leading the People merged refugees’ stories into a poignant composition – a totem that symbolised freedom and justice amid Europe's conflicts.
Three Ukrainian women were interviewed by Capslock Magazine, capturing their personal stories, ongoing fears, and hopes for the future ahead. Tiziana then visually translated their stories into concentric rings – each representing one distinct voice. Using sonic data, the voices were merged, resonating as a unified cry for freedom, justice, and peace. Throughout the documentary screening, Liberty Leading the People guided viewers through a poignant exploration of border life in Ukraine, providing a visual narrative of resilience and humanity amidst turmoil.
The artwork’s title, Liberty Leading the People, pays homage to Eugène Delacroix's iconic painting, known for its symbolic depiction of liberty and democracy, transcended from its origins to become a universal symbol of liberation. Limited edition prints of the work are available for purchase through Tiziana’s online shop, with all proceeds dedicated to World Central Kitchen – a charitable organisation that responds to humanitarian, climate, and community crises by providing meals worldwide.
Tiziana Alocci, Liberty Leading The People, 2022.
Tiziana Alocci, Liberty Leading The People, Voice one, 2022.
Tiziana Alocci, Liberty Leading The People, Voice two, 2022.
Tiziana Alocci, Liberty Leading The People, Voice three, 2022.
Fondata Magazine – Visualising wine tasting data
A commission for Fondata Magazine, this project was inspired by Professor Xiao-Li Meng's blend of wine and statistics. The work depicted nine wine ratings using a visual vocabulary of symbols, each reflecting mean ratings and a selection of shapes indicating value nuances.
Made as a custom data visualization created for Fondata Magazine, this project was inspired by Professor Xiao-Li Meng's blend of wine and statistics. The work depicted nine wine ratings using a visual vocabulary of symbols, each reflecting mean ratings and a selection of shapes indicating value nuances. Meng, who is the Whipple V.N. Jones Professor of Statistics at Harvard University and the founding Editor-in-Chief of Harvard Data Science Review, embarked on an unexpected journey when one of his students proposed merging wine and statistics. The journey saw the marrying of wine-tasting sessions with statistical lectures, exploring correlations between subjective wine ratings and numerical analysis.
The visualization for Fondata Magazine made use of distilled data from a nine-figure table, each figure representing ratings assigned to different types of wine. Employing a custom visual language, the piece encoded these ratings using unique symbols. Arranged in three columns, each symbol conveyed the mean rating for a specific wine tasted in sequence. The symbols' contours varied: smoother curves indicated lower ratings, while sharper spikes represented higher values.
The project sought to illuminate Meng's interdisciplinary teaching method, illustrating complex statistical concepts through the lens of wine tasting. His pioneering blend of wine appreciation and statistical analysis continues to foster new insights, engaging both students and enthusiasts alike.
La Lettura
Beginning in 2019, a collaboration with La Lettura, Corriere della Sera's cultural supplement has resulted in a series of intricate data visualizations revealing data around weekly top global artists, paired with contextual articles, together blending art with information and popular culture.
Beginning in 2019, a collaboration with La Lettura, Corriere della Sera's cultural supplement has given rise to a series of intricate data visualizations revealing data around weekly top global artists, paired with contextual articles, together blending art with information and popular culture.
The Periodic Table of the Discoverer of the Elements
Within the series, the work titled Periodic Table of the Discoverer of the Elements commemorated UNESCO's International Year of the Periodic Table in 2019. This visualization revisited the iconic Periodic Table, spotlighting the scientists behind its discoveries and tracing its evolution from conception to its contemporary significance.
EGOT Club, The most exclusive showbiz club
Another notable work was the EGOT Club, which focused on the exclusive group of individuals achieving Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Awards. This visual journey detailed the esteemed EGOT winners, highlighting their milestones and the cultural impact of their achievements.
Alien Species
A visualization on Alien Species shed light on the ecological impact of invasive plants and animals introduced into new environments, disrupting ecosystems and threatening biodiversity.
European long-distance paths
The exploration of European long-distance paths was the subject of another visualization, highlighting twelve scenic routes spanning 60,000 kilometres across 28 countries, inviting enthusiasts to explore nature's beauty and enhance cognitive abilities through walking.
1969, Sellerio – A Vast Array of Literature
In another edition, a tribute to the 50th anniversary of Sellerio held during the Salone del Libro in Turin was visualised, where the renowned publishing house celebrated for titles like the Commissario Montalbano series, reflected on its literary contributions.
National Anthems, year of adoption per country
Lastly, the National Anthems visualization, timed with the Tokyo Olympics, chronologically arranged participating nations based on the adoption year of their national anthems, showcasing the rich cultural tapestry of countries joining the global event.
Selected clients
The National Gallery (London), Unit London, Lufthansa Group, British Library, David Gilmour, Condé Nast, Robertet Group, The Orb, The Guardian, Thomson Reuter Foundation, Corriere della Sera, University of the Arts London, Open Data Institute, Sum Over Histories, BBC, RCS Media Group, Signal Noise, Nexus Agency, HUGE Inc.