Part 1: Collect, sift, filter
In the first week, David Hunter gave us a guest lecture about his data visualization project and tools. We were given the task to explore our local environment and collect data along the way using his tools. I found the doors in Winchester were quite fascinating and distinct from the ones in China. So I took pictures of different colors of doors along the way and used the application from David to visualize the the color of doors on the map.
After that lecture, I found that data visualization was really engaging. So I practiced what I learned to make a video call time visualization of me and my boyfriend. We called each other everyday because we were running a long-distance relationship, video call was the only way we could see each other’s face.
Redder the line is, more time we spent on video calls that day.
Part 2 : Visualize, storytelling and making public
As for this project, I choose the topic of personal place and decide to do two outcomes of different visual styles under this topic. The first topic is about the physical place – my room in UK. And the second part is the virtual space – the traces we left in our phones and social media.
· Visualization of the Physical Space ·
Before this project, I watched a TV series called Move to Heaven which is inspired by the essay “Things Left Behind” by Kim Sae-byul, a former “trauma cleaner”. Sang-gu joins his nephew to help run the family trauma cleaning company “Move to Heaven”, where in the course of business they uncover untold stories about the deceased.
In this series, on seeing all the traces and belonging of the deceased were wiped out from the room and put into a small box, I began to reflect on what traces I left in this room and what kind of story could be revealed through them. They are like puzzles, piece by piece, putting together the life of the owner. The objects are like data, they can both tell stories.
· Sketches ·
Wardrobe
Wall Decorations: Receipts, postcards and stick notes.
Each capsule represents a piece in my wardrobe. Information like the frequency of wearing, color of the piece and the categories of the clothes can be read through this image.
Outcome 2: Visualization of the Digital Space
When I was on the train to Bath, I lost my camera with 200G photos and videos in it. I was so sad because I thought I lost all of my memories in it. Especially the videos of my hometown and my family. I could not play the videos again when I start being homesick. Although I know that my families are still here and not lost but I am afraid that one day I would forget all those memories if I lost my photos. I believe that I am not the only person who is finding proofs of existence in the photos and digital copies of life.
· Sketches ·
· Social Media
· Photos ·
In the triangle, each line represents a photo. The height of the triangle corresponds to the amount of photos I took in that month.
· Recordings ·
Sound visualization code
· Final Outcome ·
The video use the clips of my recordings as background music. The sound is visualized as the moving white line in the middle. The mountain-like shapes are my photos, and the coordinate at the corner is my social media updates, altogether, composing the landscape of my digital memory. It’s like entering the world of database, no extra colors just algorithms and simple lines.