Although we think of data viz as a fundamentally digital process, it has its roots in hands-on, physical media. There’s a lot of creativity that goes into data viz, and physical media give us lots of outlets to pursue that creative ethos! But there are other, scholarly reasons to play with hands-on data too. Having to craft each data point by hand humanizes the data. It forces us to reckon with the data both individually and in the aggregate. And it gives us a new set of possibilities and constraints in how we visualize, which can help to surface new patterns.

For this lab, we’ll do two different activities, which will take place in class over a few sessions.

March 23: Evaluating Creative Data Viz

In groups, review an existing physical data visualization project. Obviously, there are limitations to this, because we’re encountering these physical projects virtually. But try to imagine the experience of encountering this object in person – by touch and feel, by sight, by sound, by smell.

Evaluation Form

March 23-25: Collecting Data

Between Monday and Wednesday, choose something to track. This could be something that your device already tracks for you, like screen time or steps. It could be something that you keep track of over the next few days (a la the Dear Data project). Or it could be something external to you that you find/collect the stats for, like temperatures or air quality. Bring at least 5 data points (but more is fine!).

March 25: Creative Data Visualization

On Wednesday, I’ll bring craft materials to class, and we’ll work on creatively, physically visualizing your data points. We’ll conclude by documenting and reflecting on your visualizations.