The most eye catching element of the Think Exhibit is the enormous Data Wall. Stretching 123 feet outside the converted parking garage on Columbus Avenue. The digital wall reflects real time live streaming data from the surrounding area including traffic on Broadway, solar energy use on the Upper West Side, and air quality throughout Manhattan. The billboard-sized digital display shows how we use the world around us and illuminates on a local scale the many opportunities for changes to be made.
Inside, viewers are immersed in a forest of 40 seven foot tall media panels. Each screen projects a 12 minute video about the human quest for technological progress over the past century. Once the video concludes, the panels become interactive learning tools for visitors to examine the history of data tracking and exploration from the earliest of topographical maps to the most recent of supercomputer databases.
The interactive panels also demonstrate technological sensors currently used to measure our production, consumption, travel, and almost anything else possible. Simulations of viruses spreading, weather predicting algorithms, microscopes and clocks show that the systems can be used and adapted to create a more livable, safer, and more efficient and sustainable world.
Viewers can also watch interviews with heavyweight speakers from the IBM Think Forum in New York including IBM CEO Sam Palmisano, the King of Jordan, and the Presidents of Mexico and the Philippines.
And what is any technological exhibition without the inclusion of social media? Visitors are encouraged to leave their own comments and insight via Facebook, Twitter, dig, delicious and even LinkedIn, building a community dialogue toward a sustainable future.
The IBM Think Exhibit runs from September 23rd to October 23rd and is located at the Lincoln Center parking garage on Jaffe Drive.
