Letter­stori.es

Insight

LetterStori.es is an interactive visualization that connects historical correspondence and places it in a contextual framework. It was initially developed for the Dada artist Raoul Hausmann in collaboration with the Berlinische Galerie Berlin. The project aims to uncover hidden stories and thematic connections within an extensive archive dataset of letter correspondence, making them accessible to the public.

The result includes an interactive prototype and a web application that presents live data. It was developed together with Caspar Kirsch, Dustin Kummer and Emil Woop at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam as part of a course on making archives more accessible and explorable for the public.

Process

Creating LetterStori.es involved engaging with curators and Raoul Hausmann specialists to gain insights into the artist’s personal life and relationships. Collaboratively with the team, I codesigned the interface using Figma, focusing on communicating narratives linked through letter exchanges. Programming the prototype involved JavaScript, React, and Pixi.js to implement the network visualization of letter exchanges between Raoul Hausmann and his contemporaries. The outcome was a tangible web application, diverging from traditional search methods, allowing users to explore epistolary data with an interactive and visually compelling interface.

Personal role

In developing LetterStori.es , my role encompassed collaborating with stakeholders, understanding archival context. I actively contributed to the interface’s design to ensure an appealing aesthetic and smooth user experience. Additionally, I programmed the prototype, implementing the interconnected network of people using JavaScript and WebGL.