I have a deep and abiding interest in data as a tool for understanding the world and taking positive action.
Data as an agent - Data as a tool - Data as a cultural artefact - Data as shared narrative
- Telling stories with data: Do stories have power? What form does this power take? Are stories just words, or more? Images, sounds, smells, tastes, feelings? How can we tell stories with data for effective understanding? What is effective? To whom?
- Data as a pragmatic tool: Should data be a product? Can the product be a story? Is data a raw material? What is lost when we refine data? What benefits does who gain when we create data products?
- Design + Data: How can design thinking be applied to data ((to produce more effective stories / useful products?) Do data products have to be useful? Where does art and creativity come in?
This needs refining but is a useful dump of the main artery and side streets of my thinking about data based on 20+ years of professional practice, 5 years of academia and a lifelong fascination with understanding and being heard.
There is a contradiction between my desire for efficiency - “Get the right information to the right people at the right time so they can take informed actions that support their goals” and my desire for understanding - “Understanding is more than just knowing” and my desire for whimsy - “Beauty for it’s own sake”.
It may be that this lifelong journey will expose that these are separate, possibly parallel paths or that there is some convergence at certain, unknown points.
Klanten, R. (2011). Visual Storytelling. Prestel Pub.
From back cover: Visual storytelling uses graphic design, inforgraphics, illustration, and photography to convey information in the most elegant, entertaining, and informative way.
Knaflic, C. (2015). Storytelling with Data: A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals. John Wiley & Sons.
My notes: This book helped shape my thinking around simple, democratic ways to tell stories with data. Edges more towards data literacy than data philosophy.
Bach, B., et al. (2018). Narrative Design Patterns for Data-Driven Storytelling.
My notes: Inspired by Bach’s research - could also help me find other material to round out my understanding
Sayers, J., 2018. Before You Make a Thing. [ONLINE] Available at: https://jentery.github.io/ts200v2/notes.html. [Accessed 18 November 2018].
From website: This is a guide for Technology and Society 200 (Fall 2018; 60 undergraduate students) at the University of Victoria. It consists of three point-form lists. The first is a series of theories and concepts drawn from assigned readings, the second is a rundown of practices corresponding with projects we studied, and the third itemizes prototyping techniques conducted in the course.
2018-12-01: Data, design and uncertainty