{"id":6838,"date":"2023-10-10T13:42:37","date_gmt":"2023-10-10T13:42:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/handandmachine.org\/classes\/computational_fabrication\/?p=6838"},"modified":"2023-10-12T07:07:00","modified_gmt":"2023-10-12T07:07:00","slug":"christopher-tye-data-physicalization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/handandmachine.org\/classes\/computational_fabrication\/2023\/10\/10\/christopher-tye-data-physicalization\/","title":{"rendered":"Christopher Tye, Data Physicalization"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Dataset and Intent<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the pursuit of data I could visualize, my first and biggest road block was simply how unclean nearly everything I found was. I would find a study that I felt was interesting, then go to their data only to find it was broken up into 17 different files with confusing column values and file types. In fact, out of my three datasets only one wasn’t manually created by myself (out of a set of data of course, but nonetheless), the baby names data, because I was able to take the extremely unfiltered file and work excel magic on it to resolve many of the issues. With the other its was simply impossible to find the data I needed in any digestible form, so I made the CSV myself. This had the added benefit of making the format just right and saving a lot of data cleaning time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One thing that I was disappointed I couldn’t get working was the bitmap sampling algorithm. Across dozens of complete programs checks and ensuring every last space lined up with the professors work, mine refused to replicate any recognizable visualization. This meant that some of my bitmap data sets, particularly one for Albuquerque’s public transportation system, had to be scrapped in favor of a simpler CSV file.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n

Baby Names<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

My first dataset is, perhaps biasedly, my favorite. I found a data set online for New York City that kept a record of all baby names from 2010 to 2020. After some filtering and cleaning, I got it to a position where it contained only the counts for babies named Christopher for each of four ethnicities (White, Hispanic, African American, Asian American). I chose it because it has significant personal value to me and can answer questions such as: Is my name really very unique? Is it phasing out or coming into popularity? Is it only used by one subset of the community? Unfortunately I couldn’t find this data for New Mexico specifically, but I feel that New York City’s incredibly diverse community helps paint a more complete picture. This dataset can be found here: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/catalog.data.gov\/dataset\/popular-baby-names<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

Food Costs<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

For my second dataset, I wanted to touch on a topic that has long interested me as well as worried me. The annual cost of food is a necessary expense to live, and in different places of the country that necessity can be more burdensome than others. For this dataset I actually got led down a rabbit hole trying to find a CSV, but only came upon a table on a website. I decided that I would create my own CSV from this data, as well as calculate some of my own results from it. I had some questions like: Is it actually cheaper to live in New Mexico for most people? Which states have it better? Which worse? This is a very recent dataset, 2022, so I also chose it because of its ability to somewhat account for the world crisis’s we’ve gone through and now have to pay for. Dataset here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/247wallst.com\/state\/how-much-food-costs-in-new-mexico-compared-to-the-nation\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

Water Carcinogens<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I had done a personal dataset, I had done a country dataset, and now I wanted to do a dataset that touched my community more closely. Finding Albuquerque specific data in a usable format was again, very difficult, at least for the data I was looking for. Eventually I came across the idea of water contaminants in our water system and what that looks like for us in our daily life. I wanted to answer questions like: Should I be drinking public water? Is it really safe? If it is bad, how bad is it? These questions were a little uncomfortable, but their answers are important to everyone around me and may influence their behavior in a way that I think is interesting. I also built this dataset from the data provided at a government webpage. Webpage and data here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.ewg.org\/tapwater\/system.php?pws=NM3510701<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Design Process and Results<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

With my data now built and ready for use, I was ready to work on using it to generate some 3D forms. I took some lessons learned from our vessels assignment and used it to inform how I wanted the shapes to look different even if using a similar algorithm. Particularly for the food cost and carcinogen objects as they are similarly sized datasets using the graph revolution method given in class. By doing some slight filtering and cleaning I was able to manipulate a shape to be slightly different while still using the same data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n

First was my baby name form, which uses a more specialized version of our graph plot program. By more specialized, I mean it required a very deep rewrite and doesn’t use the revolution technique to build the form. Instead it you can imagine that it uses data points to create polygons and connects those polygons to create the vessel, the same as we saw in our last assignment. With this data specifically I used the four axis’ to represent a given ethnicity, and then uses the vectors magnitude to represent the frequency of the name Christopher. This algorithm results in these beautiful waves and patterns that actually lets us gleam a whole lot from the data its representing. This form allowed me to not only create a beautiful pattern, but answer my questions that would likely never get answered from looking at the data alone. Christopher is a name that’s falling a bit out of style! The two Christopher’s in this class must be intimidating to live up to! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

Secondly was my food cost form, which used the rather simple data revolution technique. The complexity in this form actually comes from the dataset used, since it’s almost entirely of my own creation. Taking the numbers from the link provided, I was able to calculate how a states median income compared to its average food cost, and further take that comparison and derive it in respect to the highest valued state. That’s all to say that my form represents where the states lay in relation to each other in regards to how expensive food “feels” for them. I chose this representation because I feel like it gives a better idea visually how food, a life necessity, is being viewed across the country.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

Finally, I was ready to create my final form. Originally as stated above, this last form was supposed to be a bitmap visualization to give more variety. Unfortunately due to some weird bug and not enough time to troubleshoot, I had to scrape it and eventually found and created this dataset. I chose this form because I feel that it’s very simple in nature to understand. In your water that you use on a daily basis, you’d really rather this form be a long, skinny line. That’s because each peak is a different magnitude above the EWG’s recommended values for cancer causing chemicals. Of course it’s all within legal limits, but that doesn’t make it good for you. I chose this form because it tells a story simply with its existence, and for me at least definitely makes me see things in a different light than just the numbers on a page.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Printing Process<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As compared to the last assignment, printing seemed to work out quite well for me on this one. I definitely took a lot of lessons learned and applied them here to get what I feel is a better result. As such there isn’t much to report as it was really smooth sailing, except for two things. Firstly and as you may have noticed, the top of my water carcinogen form isn’t quite all there. Due to the extreme narrowing of the dataset there was only a very small amount of material getting put down there, and though Cura seemed to be fine with it it resulted in this spring like effect. A small piece fell off because of its fragility, but I almost enjoy the form as it is for its error. It almost reminds me of a Nintendo Pikmin, and it still gets the forms point across without being too distracting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n

One other change to my process was adding a brim to all of my prints. I had seen some lifting issues in the last project, and early tests this time showed me that because it was so dense and had a lot of time to cool that a brim may be useful in ensuring a good print. An example is shown to the right. For the most part I think this assessment was correct, but then came the issue of removing the brim. It was a much cleaner experience than adding supports for sure, it involved cutting the brim off and deburring the model, which worked okay but I definitely don’t have the professional tools for. Some bumps and scuffs resulted and can be seen from that process if one looks close enough.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Reflecting on Data<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Something unique that derives from data is the restrictions that come with it. A perfect example is my final carcinogen model, as there is only so much that my printer can do in reality before the data overpowers the medium. This restriction was something I was very cognizant of, meaning that data sets couldn’t have giant fluctuations that created great overhangs or if it did, it had to be cleaned in some way. It was surprising to me how much of the work ended up being in preparing the data, even though we were warned. It really was the bulk of the work in my case, but being able to take that raw data and shape it is almost like making a vase out of clay, the art of removal and refinement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This leads me to what data can do, which is teach us something statistically real in the world. Other forms of art are certainly nice on the eyes, but something about what you’re looking at translating to something in the real world is only possible with this approach. It allowed me to add meaning and lessons into my art which wasn’t really possible before. The carcinogen form informs the viewer of the danger the water system around the poses, the name form represents hundreds of thousands of people, all living their life, but only the pattern that their creation creates together, making an accidental symphony of sorts. Though data is a more rigid construct, working with it and finally visualizing it is rewarding in not only an artistic way, but a very human way too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Code<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The code used for this project can be found here<\/a>. Each form has been separated into it’s own Grasshopper file for simplicities sake.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dataset and Intent In the pursuit of data I could visualize, my first and biggest road block was simply how unclean nearly everything I found was. I would find a study that I felt was interesting, then go to their data only to find it was broken up into 17 different files with confusing column values and file types. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-data_phys_23"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/handandmachine.org\/classes\/computational_fabrication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/handandmachine.org\/classes\/computational_fabrication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/handandmachine.org\/classes\/computational_fabrication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/handandmachine.org\/classes\/computational_fabrication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/handandmachine.org\/classes\/computational_fabrication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6838"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/handandmachine.org\/classes\/computational_fabrication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7006,"href":"https:\/\/handandmachine.org\/classes\/computational_fabrication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6838\/revisions\/7006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/handandmachine.org\/classes\/computational_fabrication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/handandmachine.org\/classes\/computational_fabrication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/handandmachine.org\/classes\/computational_fabrication\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}