#data visualization art

American China. Brian Foo. Porcelain. 

Brian Foo is an artist and computer scientist, currently working as a data visualization artist at the American Museum of Natural History. Foo was inspired to create this series by his family history, immigrating to the U.S. from China in the early 1900s. To best preserve this history, Foo decided the to create something food related, as food is an integral part of Chinese culture. 

The American China collection consists of 3D printed porcelain works. The first work in the collection is a traditional soup spoon whose outer edge represents a timeline of Chinese immigration to the United States from 1882 to 2015. The geometry was created using Python, and then exported into a printable model using Blender. Other works include a plate showing the San Andreas fault line as it caused to 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, a cup engraved with a poem originally found on the walls of the Angel Island immigration station, and a teapot shaped like a traditional iron typically used in Chinese American laundries. 

Wing On Wo & Co. is the oldest continually run family business in New York’s Chinatown. It is also home to The W.O.W. Project, a community initiative to preserve Chinatown’s creative side through art and culture. Sine Theta did a discussion with W.O.W. in April 2019 as a part of the project to promote Chinese culture initiatives, and Wing On Wo & Co. carries our print magazine in their store. For the upcoming W.O.W. three year anniversary celebration on June 14, Foo will be holding a silent auction for his pieces.