A digital artwork by Tekja

Starting as a sapling and gathering hopes from across the county and beyond, the sapling will transform into a beautiful tree formed by the hopes we have made for Durham 2025.

The tree is created from hopes collected by a specially created survey, and grows branches as hopes are made.

Tree of Hope was the first ever Lumiere artwork to be presented in the digital realm, created for the 2021 festival by data visualisation studio Tekja and supported by Visit County Durham.

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The project is powered by an analysis of hopes made.

These are some of the most common topics in the hopes about the county we have collected so far:

Art

Environment

Landscapes

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Inspiration

The digital artwork drew inspiration from Durham being a place of ‘big thinkers’ surrounded by stunning landscapes and world-renowned dark skies, that provide a strong connection to our natural environment, making it a place where we can reflect upon humanity’s ability to hope for and move towards a better future.

The concept of reflection translated into the digital realm through the use of data, by collecting hopes from Durham and beyond.

View the tree

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    • A digital artwork for Lumiere 2021

    Lumiere logo tree of hope

    2.7 million hopes collected since June 2021

    View the tree here


    The Tree of Hope is a digital tree that represents hopes made around the world, created by data visualisation studio Tekja and commissioned by [commissioning / production copy here]. The tree is created by millions of hopes collected from social media and a specially created survey. grows branches as hopes are made in Durham and around the world. Starting as a sapling and gathering hopes from school children in Durham, the audience at Lumiere Festival and a global live-feed from social media the sapling will transform into a beautiful adult tree formed by hopes we have made for ourselves, for others and for our planet.

    The project is powered by an analysis of millions of hopes made worldwide Of all the hopes we have collected:


    94% of hopes

    Were made for others

    XX% of hopes

    Were made for others

    Most hopes

    Were hopes made about finding love and happiness

    View the tree here


    Inspiration

    The digital artwork drew insparation from the festival's physical location in County Durham as a place of ‘big thinkers’ surrounded by stunning landscapes and world-renowned dark skies,that provide a strong connection to our natural environment, making it a place where we can reflect upon humanity’s ability to hope for and move towards a better future. The concept of reflection translated into the digital realm through the use of data, by collecting millions of thoughts and hopes from around the globe, possible only digitally through social media we can begin to understand what the whole world is dreaming for its future. Locally in Durham we created a survey that will capture the hopes of local school children and the wider community.

    View the tree here


    Created for:

    Commissioned by: