Data Narratives

•

Data Narratives

Data Narratives is a textiles-based data visualization created using various embroidery techniques and it was the result of a year-long thesis project. It is a visual narration of an individual’s everyday life using FitBit data (i.e. heart rate, physical activity, sleep cycle) represented in the form of symbolic motifs. This work was realized through an extensive exploration of various bodies of thought including, Hyperreality, the Quantified Self and Data Humanism. Data Narratives is intended to stimulate discourse about new tactile, organic and emotional ways of consuming data while exploring the tangibility of technologically-derived identities.

The embroidery on the shirt visualizes an individual’s heart rate per hour over a series of days as measured by their FitBit while the embroidered pants represent the amount of steps walked per hour. Lastly, the headband indicates the quality of multiple sleep cycles. (Please see data visualization legends below for more details about how the data was represented).

Embroidered Data Visualizations

Brand Tags (Front) & Visualization Legends (Back)

Photo Documentation Pamphlet Series (1-3)

Data Collection & Initial Sketches for Embroidered Visualizations

Daily Heart Rate / 1

The first embroidered data visualization was created on a shirt and it visualizes an individual’s average heart rate for 10 hours over a series of days, which are represented by the flower branches. Variations in the heart rate are represented according to the size and colour of the leaves on the branches. For instance, the small light blue leaves indicate a heart rate of 60 to 80 beats per minute (bpm), while the medium-sized dark blue leaves represent 81 to 100 bpm and the large light grey leaves represent 100 to 120 bpm. Additionally, the size and colour of the roses at the beginning of the branches indicate the overall hours of physical intensity on that particular day. For example, the small light roses indicate an intensity of 0 to 2 hours, the medium pink roses represent three to five hours and lastly, the large dark pink roses indicate six hours or more of physical intensity. The arrangement of the flowers and stems was intended to symbolically represent the interconnection of the heart and the arteries/veins that branch out from it in the human body.

Daily Physical Activity & Steps / 2

The second embroidered data visualization was created on a pair of pants and it represents the amount of steps walked per hour according to the FitBit tracker. Each type of flower represents the amount of steps the individual has walked per hour while each flower branch indicates a range of seven hours per day. For instance, the brown/golden flower with four petals represents an amount of zero to 4000 steps walked per hour, while the yellow flower with eight petals indicates an amount of 5000 to 7000 steps walked per hour, and lastly the orange flower with five petals represents over 8000 steps walked per hour.

Sleep Cycle / 3

The last embroidered data visualization was created on a headband and it indicates the quality of multiple sleep cycles. The size of the central circles visualize the number of hours of sleep an individual received per sleep cycle. For instance, the small dark purple circle indicates between 0 to 6 hours, while the medium purple circles represent 7 to 9 hours, and the large light purple circles indicate 10 to 12 hours. Additionally, the colour and size of the surrounding petals represent the amount of sleep received during each sleep stage cycle. To explain, the small petals indicate that 0 to 25% of the total amount of sleep occurred during a particular sleep stage, while the medium-sized petal represents 26 to 50% and the large petal represents 51% or more of the total sleep amount. Further, the light green coloured petals refer to the "light" stage of the sleep cycle while the medium emerald green colour indicates the "deep" phase and lastly, the dark green colour represents the R.E.M sleep stage.