Shoji Visualisations by Erik Driessen

This set of visualisations is inspired by the novels of Haruki Murakmi. They visualise the rhythm of the stories.

Each square is a simplified *shoji* (Japanese sliding doors) and resembles a chapter. The doors open up according to the number of pages of a chapter, where the longest chapter within the context of a book has the doors fully opened.

Some notes on the process:

During a summer holiday in 2024, I read Haruki Murakami's latest novel, *the city and its uncertain walls*, and I loved it. In that same holiday, I got the idea to make a data visualisation project dedicated to the book.

I let this idea develop slowly, made a few drafts and shared intermediary stages of the project with people. These activities have transformed the project into what it is now: a collection of slow animated data art pieces. The series currently includes the four longer Haruki Murakami novels that I've read. I plan to add more books when I read them.

The first one, the lavender one, is based on the book I read during the summer. I chose the grid (7 x 10) and colour intuitively. For the other three, I chose a colour based on a story element. I also used the same 7-chapters-per-row grid, but creatively changed the layout based on the story.

For example: the green one represents 1Q84. It has two main characters that have lost each other and slowly move towards each other. I tried to visualise that with the square at the top (chapter 1) and the square at the bottom (chapter 79).

I choose the colours from *Dictionary Of Color Combinations* *(vol. 2)* by *Haishoku Souka*, a Japanese designer.