Information Aesthetics has the story on a group at MIT that has developed a visualization called “Los ojos del mundo (the world’s eyes)” that takes geolocated photographs around Spain left by Tourists.
Los ojos del mundo (the world’s eyes) [mit.edu] illustrates the photos people visiting Spain leave behind on Flickr as evidence of contemporary tourism in the country. Through data mining and visualization techniques, the project uncovers the evolution of the presence and flows of tourists. As photos pill up to reflect the intensity of the tourist activity, they uncover where tourists are, where they come from and what they are interested in capturing and sharing from their visit. The analysis and mapping of this data allows understanding the attractiveness of leisure cities and their points of interest. In contrast it also reveals the unphotographed regions of Spain still free from the tourist buzz.
They also have a video (shown below after the break) showing the visualization in action.
World’s Eyes: Mapping the Visual Traces of Tourism in Spain – information aesthetics.
(un)photographed Spain from senseablecity on Vimeo.
