Isaac Asimov's Foundation series is one of the most iconic science fiction novels ever written. With this artwork, we pay tribute to his masterpiece by transforming the seven books into a unique network visualization.

The interstellar network of Asimov's most frequently mentioned worlds and words was built by algorithmically processing the text of each book. In this network, nodes correspond to the mentioned words or planets, and a connection is born when two wor(l)ds are co-mentioned in the same sentence. The complete series counts about 350,000 words, while the network measures 8,375 nodes and 22,299 links. With a set of innovative digital creation tools, we transformed the data graph into etheric animation and sound design matching the books' dreamy, utopist atmosphere.

The data science analysis behind this art piece is summarized in our article titled "Asimov's Foundation - turning a data story into an NFT artwork".

Flóra Borsi and Milán Janosov