Book Review: Making with Data

If you’ve been around Ye Olde Blog for a while, you may have seen me geek out about data art. So, when I heard about Making with Data (MWD), I had to check it out.*

MWD features more than 25 physical objects and exhibits with designs that are based on quantitative data. The data topics are wide-ranging, including demographics, health and wellness, weather and climate, economics, transportation, and environmental pollution. For each data object, the book provides information on the project motivation and inspiration, creation process, tools and materials, and creator reflections. MWD also has an introduction to the history of data objects, which got me thinking about abacuses (abaci?) in a completely different way.

Here are some of my favorite things about this book:

Many of the projects were innovative as hell.

Linking FitBit data to hydroponics? Using reverse-graffiti power-washing to depict air pollution? Data conveyed via gravity? Data objects that update themselves in real time? SO COOL!

Some of the objects could be accessed through senses beyond vision.

Traditionally, data art is visual. MWD included data objects that could be felt (such as the Snow Water Equivalent cabinet, NBA player shot charts, and inFORM interactive tabletop display) and heard (the Chemo Singing Bowl). These objects encouraged me to continue thinking creatively about how to make research communication accessible beyond avoiding red/green color combinations.

Some of the objects have practical uses.

These include Life in Clay pottery, the Orbacles birdhouses, the LOOP activity tracker, and the aforementioned Snow Water Equivalent cabinet. Seriously, I’d love to have any of these in my house or yard!

Beyoncé.

Did you know that Beyoncé owns a piece of data art, and it’s focused on positive and happy data?! WHAT?!

And then, a caveat.

The process section for each project drove home that physical data objects are more complex, iterative, time-consuming, and expensive to produce than are 2D data visualizations. Ultimately, they are probably going to be most appropriate for data that are very important and interesting, in a setting that many people will visit over an extended period of time. Think climate change, housing insecurity, museums, and the world’s busiest airport.

So, these aren’t objects people are regularly producing for every data point. For most of us, these projects can serve as a once-in-a-career aspiration or, at the very least, inspiration to think hard about what insights are most important and how to best convey them in a way that will drive action.

Want help translating YOUR data into attractive and effective products? Contact us!

*Literally. Yay libraries!