#dataproject

I got 99 problems but pessimism ain’t 1. Lmao. So with this data object project for studio, i have come across many obstacles in trying to accomplish my bloody data physicalization. At first i had no idea what i was going to create in order to represent the data i found interesting and wanted to physicalize. There was a lot of back and forth with thinking about what i was actually trying to portray. was it the trend in minutes and hours of difference between genders? was it the significance of time spent on paid work that caused less time to be spent for both genders at home cleaning or with their kid/s? Pondering further on these questions, i found myself stuck with what i was actually doing with the project in general. Let me take you through my process in which i ended with just representing the areas of data that i found interesting and that applied to all three categories of men, women and the total population. 

Firstly, i came across table 5. This table of data represents the time spent by all on primary categories along with simultaneous activities. one of the first areas of data that caught my interest was ‘time spent on paid work’. something i forget mention earlier was that the table also contains time statistics from both 1998/9 and 2009/10. so going through the table, i automatically began comparing the time spent on each activity in both time periods. from this point i assumed i was going to create an object that physically showed the comparison between the statistics of the different times using a limited number of data areas. 

this was when i recognized the trend that was formed from looking at how much time was spent on paid work compared to household work, childcare, purchasing of goods and services and of course free time activities. as i was comparing the two categories of time periods, i found in 2009/10, there was a significant increase in the amount of time being spent on paid work leading to a decline in the time spent over the household work and childcare areas. however, there was an increase in time spent purchasing goods and services and also free time activities. naturally, i tried to utilize this trend and base my object off this trend i found. my plans were good and i had a concept of motion and progress set. i was going to make a wheel using density columns in the center of the wheel to hold the actual data in the form of liquid densities.

Of course when it came to prototyping my object, i was confronted with the fact that i had not thoroughly thought through my plan as the liquids i tried to layer would not cooperate. with patience growing thin and time running out (funny that, given the concept of the project) i had to improvise and trade in my liquids for solids. using flour, sand, sugar, dirt and sherbet for my densities, it was probably the wisest decision i’d made this whole project. moving forward, i decided to cut down my overall project for my prototype. only portraying one time period with 3 categories of gender and 5 different sections of data, it turned out pretty well. 

once my prototype was finished, i looked at my smaller object through squinted eyes and tried to envision 3 more density columns. at this point i realized i stuffed up  no but really i realized i probably should change my end product. maybe i chewed off more than i could handle. i think seeing how long it took my just to accomplish the prototype with half the data i originally  intended, i saw my future in this project timeline and decided it would be too much tgo represent both time periods. not only would it be too much of a physical comparison, but i was afraid the object would look more like a graph. as if i took the spreadsheet and created a density layering system that showed each statistic etc etc (i guess that’s what i’ve done anyways woops).

attempting to actually hit this project at full speed, i began making the plastic framing for the triangular tubes that would hold the dense solids. ill tell you now, i decided to use triangular tubes because i read somewhere that triangles symbolize positive change. with the three points of the triangle, it also represents motion. its actually quite funny because when i was researching the symbolism of a triangle, a lot of the search results turned up with links to sites like ‘decoding illuminati symbols’ and ‘the secret language of symbols’. 

using a cake stand as the base of my density columns, i decided to use another cake stand to cover off the top of the tubes. as a whole, the object turns out in a wheel formation. in relation to my project and the theme of motion, the wheel is fitting in my personal opinion as it represents timelessness and progression. i realized that progression seems to be a reoccurring theme in most of my projects. 

So after being barraged by insane amount of data, I found a data that had some clear differences.

The problem lies that it very hard to look at lines and lines of similar numbers with different year taken. In my opinion its not even the cool data.

But since I am in colab, we take something boring and make it magnificent which i have no problem but is just hard to trudge through the data.

Another problem lies in that the data are very similar, or the ones i saw anyone, the one that had clear differences is in table 6.1 and 6.2, the one about house work childcare and buying groceries. The one i saw that had clear difference between the two different years when they were taken so it is the one I choose.

Another problem that bothers me is that yes it does have the clear differences but it seems generic. Like i said there are not many other data sets therefore the likeliness of other people using the same data is high, which makes me think that my work we will be one of the many. But it will have to do.

Duas semana atrás a Shaina propôs que começássemos uma versão nossa do Dear Data. A proposta deste projeto é fazer uma coleta de dados pessoais em um tópico específico, por uma semana, e depois desenhar os dados em um cartão postal. 

Achei isso lindo! Primeiro que é uma maneira inteiramente única de se manter contato com um amigo à distância, e segundo, é uma forma de transformar análise e coleta de dados -- algo geralmente visto como hors concour em ciências exatas -- em arte, ou em uma infantil tentativa de.   

A ideia casa bem com nosso relacionamento, já que somo amigas à distância há uns bons três/quatro anos, e durante esse tempo nos falamos (pelo menos) toda semana, e sempre temos coisas interessantes a relatar sobre nossas vidas relativamente monótonas. E óbvio, somos “data enthusiasts” incorrigíveis.

Legal também é o propósito das autoras de mostrar, através deste projeto, que trabalhar com dados não é assustador, e que um banco de dados não precisa necessariamente ser grande*. Enfim, é isso o que acontece quando mulheres invadem um campo de trabalho tradicionalmente dominado por homens: a ideia mais legal do mundo :)      

*http://www.dear-data.com/about/

Week 1: 5 Days of Moving Around

Conceito

Penso que uma pessoa é muito mais o que ela faz em seu tempo livre do que em seu tempo “ocupado”. Por exemplo, somos muito mais o que ouvimos ou lemos no trem a caminho do trabalho, do que a profissão que exercemos quando chegamos no destino. Logo, foi nisso que tentei focar.

Representatividade/Desenho

Nossa primeira semana só teve seis dias, sendo que em um deles e não saí de casa. Não foi uma semana representativa, mas o banco de dados pequeno me permitiu adicionar cada detalhe da coleta no desenho. 

O que achei legal

O caminhozinho que fiz, embora infantil, contém dados sobre quantos quilômetros me desloquei, em que dia, qual meio usei, e como me distraí. E tudo bem padronizado.

Week 2: Micro Accounting

Conceito

No fim das contas, controlar as próprias finanças não é uma coisa lá muito inspiradora. Logo foquei em conceitos bem básicos -- despesas planejadas e não planejadas, e consumo imediato ou futuro --  e optei por omitir boa parte do que coletei. E é lógico, a primeira motivação de tudo foi fazer com que o desenho não remetesse a dinheiro.    

Representatividade/Desenho

Os números são bem representativos, quando se calcula 50 centavos em vez do “1 Euro”, já que divido praticamente todas minhas despesas em dois. O desenho, por sua vez, acabou saindo bem diferente da ideia que tive inicialmente. A cada rascunho que eu fazia, acabava excluindo um indicador para o qual dados haviam sido coletados. Mas no final, até que gostei do resultado minimalista. 

O que achei legal