Google Analytics For Physical Environments

If you run a blog or a website, tools like Google Analytics generate loads of useful data that tells you things like where your visitors come from and how they use your website. How interesting would it be to translate that idea to an offline environment? That’s exactly what Swedish-born, Amsterdam/Berlin-based artist Jonas Lund did.

Lund’s Gallery Analytics project is a site-specific installation for exhibitions that’s able to generate data about behavior of visitors and present this data in a Google Analytics-like environment. By setting up a mesh Wi-Fi network and combining it with custom-made software, Gallery Analytics is able to track every Wi-Fi-enabled device (such as a smartphone) moving around in the area in real-time.

Gallery Analytics by Jonas Lund

The installation provides in-depth analysis of the exhibition visitor’s experience of the space and from that distill how well the artworks in the exhibition perform. The technology is quite similar to how a shopping mall is tracking their visitors to determine how well a window display converts customers, but it’s the first time it’s used in a cultural environment and now that’s very interesting!

Gallery Analytics by Jonas Lund

Until 29 November, Gallery Analytics is tracking visitors of the Momentum exhibition at the REWIRE Festival in The Hague. Head over to the Gallery Analytics website to see the system in action. The interface is also installed in the exhibition space in order to show visitors that they’re being analyzed.