11 April 2015

Dear Data


Dear Data is a year-long, analog data drawing project by Georgia Lupi and Stefanie Posavec

That is what they wrote on their site. I think they have forgotten to add that is is a really wonderful mail project.



The project:Each week we collect and measure a particular type of data about our lives, use this data to make a drawing on a postcard-sized sheet of paper, and then drop the postcard in an English “postbox” (Stefanie) or an American “mailbox” (Giorgia)!
We’ve also noticed that the data collection and visualization process has become a sort of performance and ritual in our lives, affecting our days and weeks, and inherently changing our behaviour. [...] 
But really, we also started this project to show how “data” is not scary, is not necessarily “big”, and that you need to know almost nothing about data to start collecting and representing it (just a pencil, a notebook and a postcard!).


The process:Every week we choose a topic we want to explore about our days and lives, and on Monday start our separate-but-parallel data collection.[...]
The postcards:The data drawing is shown on the front of the postcard, while the back always includes a “how to read it” key to enable the other to understand the data collection and insight behind the drawing.Also, we’re keeping records of the entire process including our notes, our preliminary sketches and photos to document how our data collections and drawing evolves through time, found in the 'by weeks' section of the site.


(The illustrations on this post are taken from Week 04: A week of mirrors.)

10 comments:

  1. Wow, that is an amazing concept for a project, and the results are fascinating and beautiful.

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    1. I am fascinated by this project. I have spent a lot of time browsing the site.

      I'd like to do something just half amazing, by snail mail!

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    2. I was thinking the same thing!

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    3. So we should come up with an idea for a snail mail project!

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    4. I sent you a message on IUOMA about this.

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  2. Uau, com se'ls va acudir? És un projecte molt xulo!! Ja m'avisaràs quan comencis el teu!

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    1. Encara se m'ha d'acudir, i trobar un company amb temps lliure! :D

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  3. I'm thinking of doing one on 'How often I walk into a room and forget why I went there!'. But I'll probably forget to do it.

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    1. John--heh! I would be in the exact same situation on that as I do that more often than I would care to admit!

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Thank you for coming. All your comments make me extremely happy.