Data source: http://www.happyplanetindex.org/data/

The Happy Planet Index (HPI) introduced  by the New Economic Foundation (NEF) ranks 151 countries across the globe on the basis of how many long, happy and sustainable lives they provide for the people that live in them per unit of environmental output. Put another way, it represents the efficiency with which countries convert the Earth’s finite resources into well being experienced by their citizens.

The Global HPI incorporates three separate indicators:

1. Ecological footprint (the amount of land needed to provide for all their resource requirements plus the amount of vegetated land needed to absorb all their CO2 emissions and the CO2 emissions embodied in the products they consume)

2. Life satisfaction (health as well as “subjective well-being” components such as a sense of individual vitality, opportunities to undertake meaningful, engaging activities,
inner resources that help one cope when things go wrong, close relationships with friends and family, belonging to a wider community)

3. Life expectancy

The diagram represents 151 countries according to their position in the list.
The outer circle shows top 61 countries, inner circles represent countries with lower HPI.

Color code :

life expectancy, well-being and ecological footprint are given a traffic-light score based on thresholds for good (green), middling (yellow) and bad (red) performance. These scores are combined to an expanded traffic light for the overall HPI score, where, to achieve bright green a country would have to perform well on all three individual components.

*Red spheres display countries with life expectancy more 75 years

Screenshot from VIDEO

Inspired by data visualization and looking at information as art, this is an experiment to explore the basics of graphically rhythmic visuals using sound as an input and basic geometric shapes to build the visual environment.

CLICK THE IMAGE TO WATCH THE VIDEO

>> CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO <<

Software: Processing

Library: Minim

Method: FFT / Frequency Spectrum

Song: Game of Love (remix by Nicolas Jaar Album DaftSide) original song by Daft Punk

Looking into songs as data, this sketch shows how using the MINIM library from processing can analyze audio to isolate specific frequencies within a spectrum. Then add this properties to specific shapes and create responsive visuals. Using the method described by DDF on this link – http://code.compartmental.net/2007/03/21/fft-averages – to group the frequency bands in the spectrum into 9 bands, where each band represents a range in hertz. This allowed  control 9 ellipse shapes to change color or size, or show a grid of points only when the amplitude (loudness) of a range is between two specified values.

Frequencies divided in 9 bands / 9 shapes to create the graphic representation.