Prism
London Design Festival

Prism presents an alternative view of London, exposing unseen data flows in the capital through a sculptural, immersive interface suspended in the V&A’s uppermost cupola. The installation is an investigation into the virtual life of the city, and our own often ambiguous relationship with the data that controls our lives.

First time visitors to the London Design Festival are often blown away by the scale and variousness of the city they've come to. How do you even begin to represent such complexity?

London-based designer, digital artist and film-maker Keiichi Matsuda's Prism presents an ingenious window on that complexity, using data to depict the ever changing nature of the capital. His formidable digital installation at the V&A - a giant, sculptural lantern - is made up from a series of screens through which fast moving data streams are visualised, coaxed into unfolding shapes and patterns of light and colour. From transport data to economic statistics, Matsuda's Prism feeds on the digital outputs of the city and transforms them into an astonishing living patchwork. As Matsuda says, "The installation is an investigation into the virtual life of the city, and our own often ambiguous relationship with the data that controls our lives."  Here at the London Design Festival we love to open up new spaces in the city. Keiichi Matsuda's installation, commissioned by Veuve Clicquot, is installed in the cupola of the V&A's Ceramics galleries and best seen by climbing staircases never previously opened to the public. 

Commissioned by Veuve Clicquot