Dear Data

The Data Visualization workshop conveyed the personal dimension of data and its representation through a weekly exercise of logging and visualizing individual experiences. The activity was inspired by information designers Stefanie Posavec’s and Giorgia Lupi’s book “Dear Data” where the visualizations were mailed as postcards to each other each week. Students were tasked with collecting and managing their own data earlier in the week and using materials in class to visualize and reflect on the information. While data collection in some weeks seemed more granular like counting how often they hear/say “Thank You” each day, other weeks exposed the difficulty of simultaneously feeling and documenting one’s experience, such as the squishy sense of indecision. The visualizations themselves explore a range of data representation mediums from hand-drawn sketches and collages to embroidery and play-doh, to elevate the value of abstract and alternative data representations for data that can often be indescribable.