Design Signals

This installation looks at the transformation of Romania’s chemical industry from socialist-era specialization to post-2000 fragmentation. Using international trade data from 1960 onward, each sector is represented on a scatter plot graph in terms of its product complexity and export-import balance.

The resulting visualisations bring how industries shift across decades to life. While some advance toward greater complexity and strength, becoming a part of Romania’s export landscape, others regress or remain dependent on imports. A second layer of visualisation presents individual chemical products in a series of boxes.

Each column traces a sector and maps the destinations of its exports, situating specific trajectories within broader industrial patterns.

More at the exhibition page.