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
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.
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.
Moving beyond conventional sound wave representations, Sonic Tides reimagines aircraft noise as powerful ocean waves through audio-reactive projections. This sonic memoir translates hours of collected airport sound into an emotional audiovisual experience, where the intensity of aircraft noise manifests as increasingly turbulent digital tsunamis that surge across walls and floors. A poem narrated in first person documents a day in the life of a family living near the 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.
By merging field recordings with poetry, and 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.
Field recording, poetry, and data visualisation combined in a 5-minute immersive video. Turn the volume up and enjoy the experience.
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.
Research: Aleksandra Mbaike
Audio, visual, writing: Tiziana Alocci
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.
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.
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.