Visions of King
Comcast NBCU
Celebrating the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Digital Mosaic
Visions of King is a celebration of the life and legacy of Dr. King, brought to life in an interactive art installation. Posts, pics and content from users were collected and displayed to form a beautiful, interactive photomosaic of Dr. King.
the experience
Why are you #stillmarching?
The site prompted users to answer the question 'Why are you #stillmarching?' with stories, videos or images from their Instagram feed. A simple, guided flow walked the user through the submission process and even gave ideas on how to start a post. Once the user made a submission, they were collected in a queue where they could be curated and screened by an admin before being added to the digital mosaic, which automatically regenerated based on the latest submissions.
Built with WebGL
Living mosaic
The mosaic itself was developed in WebGL, using a technique called raycasting to intelligently apply hundreds of optimized pieces of media to a grid. An algorithm was used to determine which images or videos would fit where in order to create the likeness of Dr. King. From there we applied a depth map to the grid to bring parts of the mosaic into the foreground, allowing us to create the illusion of a 3D bust emerging from a flat plane. Particle effects and subtle undulations added life to visualization.
