Quotidian Record is a work by artist and researcher Brian House that transforms personal GPS location data into music, visual form, and a physical object: an analog record. It reorganizes everyday movement into relationships among time, space, and sound.
The work goes beyond data visualization. It turns data into something that can be heard, touched, and physically manipulated.
Background
House created the work from location data collected from his own smartphone over an extended period. Ordinary movement through daily life became the basis for a rule-based translation into sound.
Why It Matters
Quotidian Record asks how personal data relates to bodily experience. Instead of treating GPS logs as points on a map, it transforms them into a material artifact that can be played like a record.
Design Lessons
- Data can be materialized, not only visualized.
- Personal data can be made experiential through sound and touch.
- Translation rules are part of the artwork.
- Everyday traces can become a structured composition.
Summary
Quotidian Record is an important example of data physicalization and sonification. It turns mundane location data into an object that links movement, memory, sound, and material form.