The Neighbourhood

An artwork about stars and our place amongst them, generated from the 8912 stars visible from Earth with the naked eye

Topic

Astronomy

Medium

Data visualisation, artwork

Technology

Python, Unity

Data Source

The HIPPARCOS main star catalog

Released

February 2016

Accolades

Finalist in the 2016 Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize

Exhibited at

Art Heist, 2016

Art Attacks the Little Guy, 2016

The 2016 Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize (at the South Australian Museum)

The Neighbourhood re-imagines the 8912 stars visible from Earth with the naked eye as a city.

Each building’s height and brightness is based on the star’s brightness. Their colour is based on star’s colour. The reflections in the water are the stars’ emission spectra.

Buildings are arranged based on their distance from the galactic plane (the centre of which lies in the middle).

Somewhere in the image, small and dim, lies our sun.