Informational Overload

Essays and Visual Experiments

Sadaf Jalalian
& Polina Pashkina

About

Our project investigates how automated digital data can be translated into a physical book format. We are working with current weather data as an example of fleeting real-time information that is quickly consumed and just as quickly forgotten in everyday life. Print on demand slows down this data and fixes it as a material object. Technology/Software The book is not intended to be a static publication, but rather a dynamic system that changes with every data update.

Design Rules

  • Weather parameters control the visual properties of the images
  • Black and white as a conscious reduction and focus on structure
  • Separation of fixed layout and variable, automated content
  • Transparent pages as an additional layer for data and text

Technical implementation

  • JavaScript (.js) for processing weather data (API)
  • Generative image design based on weather parameters
  • JavaScript / ExtendScript (.jsx) for automation in Adobe InDesign
  • Adobe InDesign (template-based layout)

Conclusion

The project shows how the speed, topicality, and transience of digital information can be translated into a slow, reflective medium through print on demand. The book itself becomes a time-based object.

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