The Beyond Data Lab at Lift12 was aimed at finding new ways of understanding data. We wanted to go beyond visualisation by creating tangible interfaces through which people could get in touch with data. We emphasise the existence and importance of such terms as ‘data physicalisation’, ‘data embodiment’ and ‘datacrafting’. Our exploration specifically focused on different data interfaces as material to design, transform and learn from. We further examined this theme with the conference participants during our workshop at Lift12. We were eager to share our methodology in a completely different context, and confronted the abovementioned terms with new territories and learned what participants thought about them. New directions unfolded through the development of new concepts and rapid prototyping in the framework of the workshop.
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BEYOND DATA L A B AT THE LIFT1 2 C ONFE RE NCE
WORKSHOP METHODOLOGY SKETCHING OUT OBJECT, ISSUE AND SENSATION (20 minutes, in 3 small groups) – Object: What object would you use for a data interface? – Issue: Find a thematic context that matters to you.
EXPERIE NCES
– Sensation/feeling: How would you feel data? OUTCOME: A4 paper with sketches and several keywords Presenting sketches (20 minutes, entire group) – Each participant selects one Object, one Issue and one Sensation OUTCOME: Object-Issue-Sensation triplets REMIXING AND CONNECTING IDEAS (20 minutes, in 3 small groups) – Creating a connection BETWEEN THE OBJECT, THE ISSUE AND THE SENSATION – Making up a story or sketching out a real-world scenario A3 paper with sketches and several keywords PRESENTING STORY/SCENARIO SKETCHES (15 minutes, entire group) – Reflecting on the stories/scenarios – Wrap-up
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OUTCOME:
BEYOND DATA
Some of the workshop participants wondered why we hadn’t asked them to think about the type of data to be embodied? We purposely avoided choosing data as a point of departure because there is a tendency to think too much about data nowadays. Indeed, our thinking is often hijacked by possible data types, sensors and databases, data sources and visualisation formats. Our approach is about not starting to think about data, but about its physical, cognitive and sensorial context.