Electrolux Group and the first data-art work in an Italian factory

The data generated by the more than 6,000 sensors of the Genesi lines installed at the Electrolux Susegana site are visualised like the flow of a river in a highly automated environment. From October 2023 at the Electrolux Group’s production site in Susegana (TV), one of the factories with the highest level of automation in the Group, all employees can enjoy the first data-art installation realised within a production environment in Italy.

‘Data River’ is a site-specific installation, i.e. designed specifically for the Susegana site, which allows over 4,400 pieces of data generated daily by the two Genesi automatic assembly lines to be viewed on a large screen installed inside the factory itself. From the project’s early development stages to date, some 729,000 readings have been taken: data from 116 robots, 69 automated systems, 42 automatic product quality measurement systems, 38 artificial vision systems and 6,000 sensors.  
An experimental project that brings to the factory a digital work of art in which production flows and nature are both protagonists, offering a new experience to those who live the factory on a daily basis.

“The Electrolux site in Susegana is emblematic of how the factory environment has been transformed and evolved with a view to Industry 4.0, moving from a place of production in the strict sense of the word to a place, still of production, but also of inspiration, sharing and orientation towards the future that involves all our people“, explains Maximilian Jessula, plant manager of the site where built-in refrigerators are produced using the most modern Industry 4.0 logic.

The displayed flows – whose shape recalls that of the Piave river – are animated in real time. For each flow, curves indicate a point on the production line and the amplitude of these curves is proportional to the quality indicator at the indicated point.

The work was realised in co-design and collaboration with D20 ART LAB and the support of aiku – Arte Impresa Cultura, the research centre of Ca‘ Foscari University of Venice dedicated to the interaction between culture, creative processes and the business world, thanks to the SMATH project – Smart Atmospheres of social and financial innovation for innovative clustering of creative industries in Med area, promoted by the Veneto Region and the Department of Management of Ca’ Foscari University.