The Thinking Sculpture
Mobile World Congress is where tech companies show off their innovative products every year.
IBM had no fancy consumer products to show. No phones, no gadgets, no VR headsets.
But IBM had Watson, the super-powered AI that’s changing industries.
So we decided to turn up big with an idea that would steal the show in Barcelona. We paired Watson with legendary Catalan architect—
Antoni Gaudi to create the IBM booth that’s informed by the architect’s past work, and designed by IBM Watson.
The sculpture also interpreted real-time data from trending topics at Mobile World Congress, which influenced its constantly changing shape.
How the sculpture was made:
We fed Watson all available data from Gaudi—his sketches, writings, favorite colors, materials, shapes, and his masterpieces.
From its analysis, Watson suggested colors, materials and shapes fit for the modern world.
How the sculpture moved:
We connected hashtags associated with Mobile World Congress to the sculpture to influence its movement. The sculpture would change shapes with each new trending topic at the event, essentially turning the IBM booth into a giant data-visualization of Mobile World Congress.
