Dystopian Critique: Voices In My Head
Utopian Call for Change: The Network
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However, there is one big downfall of data-driven visualizations and that is the interpretation of that data. What is lacking is the STORY behind the data. In this case, what is the reason WHY people made their choices? Visualizations can absolutely show relations between data that we would never see on our own, especially in this era of Big Data but it is the interpretation of the meaning behind the data that is less transparent. For example, in this exercise, where we are visualizing the curation of the 26 songs on the Gold Record down to 10, why did I choose such a high percentage of the same songs as the people in my group, more so than in the other groups? What cannot be derived from the numbers alone is the reasoning behind why we chose the same musical selections. Did these four classmates have similar reasoning in that they too were curating tracks through a multi-cultural lens with strong emotionality or was it something completely different? Were they just songs they liked? Were they musical selections that tied to something in their past or a million other reasons?
Variables I wish that our dataset included demographical information so that we could run some hypothesis through like ‘Are women more likely to choose x song’ or ‘Are people more likely to pick songs from countries they have travelled to?’ I have listed out some possible reasoning I considered but don’t truly have a way of knowing any relevance without doing further data collection.
Another thing I grew increasingly interested in was the fact that one song ‘Men’s House Song’ only had one connection (only one person chose this track). Why was that? Why did so many of us decide to overlook this song but it was deemed culturally significant enough to be included in the original 26 song list. The final piece that was unclear to me from the visualization was whether there were any of the song selections that had no votes or a null response. I’m not sure if it would be left out of the visualization entirely or it would be an orphaned data node floating to the side. I believe I counted all 26 songs represented but I didn’t see a way to confirm this easily without manually counting them. Reasoning After brainstorming this list by looking at the data, I decided to snoop around the web spaces for people in my facet (grouping) to see if any of my possible reasonings could be confirmed by reading their Task 8 posting. In doing so I found that there were serval selection criteria that we had in common.
There was a lot of nuance in how these criteria were used or the weight we put on each but this may have lead to our similarity of lists. I am a huge space nerd so this was a very fun assignment to think about and complete. The Golden Record has long captured my imagination both in the technological feat of producing and sending an auditory record billions of miles into space and the feat of imagination to curate the world’s music in a short 27 piece list. Our task this week was to further reduce the list to a very short ten selection list. I'm glad there was a starting list to work from because as a music lover I would have found it near impossible to make a ten-song list from scratch. Here is my shorten Golden Record list (in no particular order) with links to the music on YouTube so you can listen through if you wish:
Something that really struck me this week was thinking about the gap between the informational media that students seek in their personal life and that which they receive in their educational life. This gap between formal and informal learning. In the informal, they are receiving rich engaging media. Conversely, often their formal learning is presented in a way more akin to print technologies, static text with perhaps some images. There isn’t anything necessarily wrong with print but modern students have come to expect something multi-modal. They also expect something authentic that they can connect with so I hope that this translates into the project I created. When I was coming up with my plan for this re-imaging task, I wanted to bring together many technologies to create a rich experience. Therefore, I began by creating a vector illustration of my original bag photo (as seen below). This I created on my iPad in Adobe Draw, which allowed me to export a vector version of my illustration. I took this into Adobe Illustrator to prep the illustration as an SVG (Scalable Vector Graphic) enabling this image to scale seamlessly for any device size. Photo VS. Illustration I then hand-coded a webpage in Dreamweaver with HTML, CSS, jQuery and Bootstrap for a responsive page that adjusts to any device size. There was quite a lot of coding to create a page that had hover effects on the individual items and that triggered a Bootstrap modal pop-up window when individual items were clicked. I recorded the audio clips in the open-source program Audacity and exported mp3 and ogg audio files to ensure that it will play on all devices as defined by open web standards. The last bit of coding to do was ensuring the audio paused when the modal window was closed. There were a lot of items in my original post so there was quite a bit of coding to finish to make it all interactive but I am very pleased with the usability, engagement, and interactivity of this project. Example Code Snippets View the Full Project I found there to be quite a change in tone between my original post (text and photos) and my new multi-modal experience. I found that my original post was quite clinical, even though I tried to write it in a way that connects with the reader. In the new experience, I believe a lot more of my personality shines through both in the graphics and the audio clips. It also combines the things I love, graphics and coding! It is like the difference between reading a book and listening to that author speak on a podcast. It is somewhat more personal and intimate but not as formal.
Time for a challenge!! Can you figure out which movie I have represented using only the visual language of emojis? You will be able to check out the solution below. Solution Were you abble to figure out the movie and the plot? To see how much of what you figured was correct, click on the button below to reveal the solution. Reflection
For this particular task, I used the software Twine to create an interactive story. I have used Twine once before so I wanted to ensure that I gained new skills through this process to enhance the electronic story I created. Taking inspiration from 'The Temple of No', I wanted to learn to use variables and logical if/else statements to modify the story as the user moved through it. This enabled me to use fewer passages in Twine but modify the content to suit where the user is in the story. Premise I also wanted this game to be useful beyond the context of this course. I am currently redeveloping a colour theory module for the graphic design course I teach and thought that it may help make more connections between colour and the feelings and behaviours they evoke if they were to learn about it in a narrative. A narrative that they are in control of. A student of mine, Hartley Fiala, recently created colour cards for a different interactive instructional piece I will be making so I decided to base my story around this. Planning I like to do all my planning documents on paper. I find my mind more nimble and thoughts come faster. In the case of this story, I planned the initial structure in a rough flowchart before moving it into Twine. Below are a couple of the pages from my planning documentation. Twine Structure
Below is a screenshot of what my story looks like in Twine. Potato Printing Time: 2.5 hours (including brainstorming ‘typefaces’) This was a very engaging way to think about the mechanization of printing. I first chose a word that meant a lot to me ‘TEACH’. I have a metal cut version of this word above my home workstation. I began by playing with a variety of letterforms to see how I wanted it to be represented. I began by drawing out ‘Blackletter’, the original font used on the Gutenburg press but ultimately felt that it would be quite difficult to carve accurately and didn’t feel that the old-timey nature of the typeface fit with the present state of teaching. I decided on a more modern handwritten style but still felt it a little bland so I decided to make some additional embellishment stamps to make a richer design. I played around a lot with the letter ‘T’ as I wanted it to be something more intricate like an illuminated letter, without being as detailed of course. Ultimately I decided on this ladder-type icon on the stem of the ‘T’ as I thought it represented the scaffolding and building of concepts. In hindsight, I wish that letter would have been carved larger but I hadn’t yet thought of cutting the potato lengthwise to create taller or longer letters There were three tricky parts of this process for me. The first was the more intricate carvings needed in the capital ‘T’, the ‘h’, and in the bowls and eyes of the letters as it was a tighter space to work in. Secondly, I forget that I would have to carve the letters backwards so I spent a lot of time carving the perfect 'e' and then printed it and realized it was backwards! Lastly, I had difficulty making the prints the same because it is hard to ensure even kerning, tracking, size, and a common baseline within the word. I was still missing the consistency that machinery could give but there is more life and humanity in it’s imperfections. As I was carving my five letters, I reflected a lot on the craftsmanship that enabled the technology, the message, and innovation of mechanized writing. If it took me two and a half hours to carve my potatoes, the length of time that it would have taken to carve a woodblock page or create the moulds for the moveable, variable-width, metal type would be immense. It would have really increased the accuracy of my print if I used a frame and blocks to secure my potatoes and print them all at once as seen with the printing press. Such an ingenious combination of technologies to create faster more accurate pages. The message during these early prints really had to be important to the creator in order to take the necessary time to create these pieces. It would have to be important knowledge to keep through the ages, that would strengthen law and civility, or a message deemed important enough to share with others in an enduring fashion. Now text is so easy to write and share that the message doesn’t have to be as important. One doesn’t have to think about the time needed to write a post and whether it is worthwhile enough of a message to embed the time into it.
Preamble
Analysis. The script produced by the voice-to-text technology deviates from both written and oral conventions and becomes a bastardized version of both. It is missing the spirit of spoken words and it is missing the formalized convention of written text because, in fact, it is a translation. As translating from one language to another can lose meaning, so too does transcribing from one delivery model to another (oral to written).
After analyzing the resulting text, I found six reoccurring errors.
Transcript of 5-minute unscripted ramblings
By way of an introduction, I am making public the private contents of my bag to give you a glimpse behind the curtain. I am quite an open person and I believe the contents of this bag, which I carry whenever I leave the house, are unified with my public persona. My personality is a dichotomy of sorts. I am pragmatic and idealistic, logical and creative. This translates into my career where I teach both coding and design. Inventory.
Gloves - After reading online that gloves were recommended by the NYFD and the LAFD, as a family, we decided that we would take the extra precaution and wear gloves as well in certain situations. We have been mindful of how much news we consume during this time and where we take our recommendations from. We happened to have a box of gloves on hand that we use for extra gross tasks (like spring clean-up after the dogs. Ewe!) so again we were able to use what was on-hand. Hand sanitizer - We happened to have a couple of travel-sized bottles around the house and we bought a large bottle to refill from so we’ve been able to have that ‘on hand’ (mind the pun). We bought the refill bottle from Rocky Mountain Soap, an Alberta company focused on natural ingredients and we are happy to support them. Again, online text technology to the rescue allowing us to purchase this online and get it delivered right to our door. People everywhere have been able to stay safe by having items delivered but I prefer to purchase items from a local company rather than giving yet more money to Jeff Bezos. Lotion - This is really needed because of the above item. Currently evolving into lizard skin, my hands need a lot of attention these days.
Communication Cracked iPhone - My phone is a very important tool in my bag. I have many communication streams on there. I stay connected by using the phone (yes, I’m still one of those people that call), Messages, Discord to converse with students, Instagram, Twitter, Canvas. I also have creative tools for design and learning and a few games to unwind (more after taking two games courses in MET). I bought this phone nearly two years ago and the screen was broken not that long after despite having a case that says it can be dropped from several metres and a tempered glass screen protector. I had purchased this extra protection insurance but didn't read the small print and later learned there is a $250 deductible. Ah, contracts that we so easily sign without reading all the Terms and Conditions. So I just use it broken because I don't want to pony up the cash. At this point, I am just waiting out the contract and will get a new phone. Headphones - I use these both for making calls and listening to my jams. I am an extremely musical person and I keep these in my purse because I prefer to dance my way through the world! It is a simple way to bring myself joy. Work Access - I still have been popping into work from time-to-time although the majority of my working time is spent at home these days. These remind me of a very different work-life balance. Card lock key and keyring - Both the new school and old school ways of entering various spaces around campus. I have been working there for 18 years so have had various iterations of access.
Fan - I always carry around a fan but it has certainly be used less in this post-COVID world. You’d be surprised how many times it comes in handy. Concerts, work gatherings, meetings, computer labs, anytime you are packed in and your temperature is uncomfortable. This particular fan I purchased from the members of a flamenco band that played at South Country Fair. I have stage managed at this event for several years so I get to meet many bands and hear new music that I may not normally find on my own. It is one of my absolute favourite times of year! It has the most supportive, accepting, and caring community of people. This fan was handmade in Columbia, is as beautiful as it is functional, and is a memory I can carry with me. Personal Products (floss, eye drops, lip balm, Japanese mint oil, facial tissue) - These are just items that I carry to make my life more comfortable on the go. Emergency Sewing kit - You never know when you might have to pull out a sewing kit to fix things on the go. I am a bit of a planner… I don’t use it a lot but it is mainly for peace of mind. Receipt for Flower Girl Dress - My daughter is also going to be the flower girl in her big brother’s wedding. She picked out the fanciest dress, complete with a train. Her face lit up with excitement as I’ve never seen when she tried on this dress. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, the wedding has been postponed until the summer of 2021. This raised many concerns about whether the dress will still fit at that time but the designer has said they will exchange sizes, which is a big relief. This receipt is part of that peace of mind and brings to mind the fun we had dress shopping in Edmonton.
This bag is very indicative of who I am at this moment in time. A creative, mid-career professional and mother. There are several items that wouldn’t have been seen a couple months ago due to the time we are in but also many items that wouldn’t have been present in my past because of my maturity. As a younger woman, I wasn’t nearly as prepared or organized (that is if I could even find my purse). I’m sure as I move forward in life, this bag will continue to evolve. I am moving to a more simple, mindful, chemical-free life and I’m sure that will be reflected in the contents of my purse in the future.
Thank you for taking the time to get to know me through this exercise! |