Wong Kar Wai,
ode to complexity
through data and matter
Narrative as dataset Cinema, data, and material design
This project operates at the intersection of cinema, data, and material design, transforming the films of Wong Kar Wai into a hybrid object where data becomes both medium and narrative.
Through a process of manually extracting subjective variables, color, emotion, rhythm, and spatial context, then translating them into computational systems with D3.js, the work produces generative visuals that are deliberately re-humanized through imperfection, watercolor textures, and handcrafted bookmaking techniques.
Methodology Subjective extraction translated into visual systems
Against clarity as dogma Ambiguity as a form of knowledge
Yet, beyond its technical sophistication, the project takes a critical stance against the dominant paradigm of clarity and efficiency in data visualization: instead of reducing complexity into legible, optimized graphics, it embraces ambiguity, opacity, and emotional density as legitimate forms of knowledge.
In line with a data humanism approach, it resists the illusion of objectivity by foregrounding subjectivity, noise, and cultural context, suggesting that data is never neutral but always situated within human experience.
By privileging narrative fragmentation, aesthetic excess, and sensory engagement over readability, the project challenges the modernist legacy of information design and argues for a more inclusive, pluralistic understanding of data, one that acknowledges contradiction, memory, and the irreducible complexity of human life rather than flattening it into simplified visual truths.
