AN OBSERVATIONAL WEB EXPERIMENT · 2024
Modern
Constellations
When the stars recede,
what do we connect instead?
GANTRY PLAZA STATE PARK
Seven evenings.
One hour at a time.
The project began by noticing airplanes in an urban sky where the stars were harder to see. I recorded what appeared above the park and started treating those moving lights as another kind of constellation.
Totals from the project’s existing observation notes. These are situated observations, influenced by weather, visibility and position—not a scientific survey or a live feed.
RELATIONSHIPS ARE DRAWN, NOT FOUND
The points exist.
The constellation is a rule.
The visualization connects aircraft that fall within a distance threshold. Change the threshold in this schematic to see how one set of points can produce very different patterns.
Enable JavaScript to explore the connection rule.
Schematic distance units. The working project uses geographic distance and limits connection density. Its simulated aircraft are not represented by these ten points.
EXPLORE THE ACTUAL IMPLEMENTATION
Orbit. Filter. Follow.
Inspect a flight, scrub the 24-hour timeline, or change how close aircraft must be before a connection appears.
Loaded only when requested. The original application keeps its own controls and visual identity.
DATA PROVENANCE / TWO VERSIONS
A live-data origin.
A reproducible present.
The original experiment
The original project used AviationStack data and Three.js. Latitude and longitude became spatial points; lines constructed temporary relationships between flights that were not necessarily related.
The portfolio implementation
The current application uses a dependency-free canvas renderer and 24 deterministic simulated flights between real airports. The visible seed, timeline and filters make it explorable without a paid API. It is not a live flight tracker.
- Airport coordinates
- Simulated routes + time
- Projected points
- Distance-based connections
What the design makes visible
The project draws attention to the act of making a pattern. A constellation feels like something discovered, yet its connections depend on where we stand and which relationships we choose to draw.
The observatory exposes those choices through its controls and data-mapping view. The case study keeps observational counts, original live-data work and the current simulated experience separate.