Trango Tower
Tracking progress of an exciting mountain climb.
Quokka’s previous efforts at combining data and imagery into compelling presentations at Quokka had been initiated after all the data had been collected, and were thus to some degree fakes. We wanted to try our hand at a structure that would allow us to combine data with story on an ongoing basis, as the event progressed. It was the only way to see whether all our thinking about automated storytelling would fly in the real world. The first ascent of the 5000-foot headwall of Trango Tower in Pakistan, in 1999, provided the initial opportunity.
Climbers’ progress up the headwall was tracked with altimeters and via spotting scopes at base camp below. These positions were marked on the map, and an indication of how much progress had been made during the day was kept track of on the image itself. Starting points, ending points and direction of travel were kept track of via the chart on the left. As the climb progressed, the story essentially built itself. Links to stories and chronicles composed of media the climbers sent down off the wall were peppered throughout the data structure. Stops and starts announced themselves as informational gaps, and a narrative flow was established and built itself over time.
Tracking progress of an exciting mountain climb.
It was great fun to watch, as a structure we had planned ahead of time really began to construct a narrative before our eyes: at a glance you could see where the climbers were, how long it had taken them to get there, and then find out what they were going through, from as close to their perspective on the wall as anyone had experienced before.
This work was done by and with Josh Draper.