DynamiCity GenType

Our society has been transformed into a digital information-driven network that contains rapidly changing data, and keeps evolving in a millisecond. Under this rapidly changing situation, we question the differences between Hong Kong (HK) and Shenzhen (SZ), whereas the distance from HK to SZ is just 17.15km.

To echo the theme of the 1st HK-SZ Design Biennale New Media Exhibition – DynamiCity, the generative typography motion wall was visualizing the urban dynamics between 2 cities – HK and SZ, in comparison to the rhythm of the cities.

Referenced the urban data from 2012 to 2014, we used a program to create the generative typography of “DynamiCity”. Each letter was representing a specific social issue:

D – Density of Population
Y – Yearly Growth Rate of Economics
N – Net Income
A – Aging Problem: Median Age
M – Modernization: Country Park %
I – Immigration: Visitors
C – Climate: Yearly Rainfall
I – Infrastructure: City
T – Traffic: Vehicles
Y – Yearly inflation Rate

The generative forms of type are following different mathematics algorithms. For example, the density of the population (D) was calculated from the molecular formula, the modules of the letter became more packed with higher density value; Net income (N) was calculated from the cloth physics that the higher value would make the cloth had a higher waving interaction with the wind.

The motion-type sculptures brought out the brand image and visual identity of the exhibition, and draw the attention of the citizens of HK and SZ to the aware the rapid changing of their own living cities and take a deeper insights to look into these two cities under the same country.