sally fiddes

Design Student @RMIT

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W E A V E D  W O R R I E S  Monday’s exhibition gave me a chance to see everyone’s amazing works and reflect on my own. Everyone had done amazing works and it was really cool to see the variety of mediums, styles and concepts. Overall I’m very happy with the outcome of my work. It displayed the data I had collected of my friend's personal experiences with anxiety in a clear way and is soft and comforting. The variety of wool represents different answers everyone had given so the scarf ends up being a visual and textual experience of anxiety but in a positive way. I am not pleased with how my scarf looks in terms of aesthetic and style but that’s something I’ve learned was not a big part of my project and is something I can sacrifice to accurately depict the data. I wish that I had asked my friends to help me in knitting the scarf as I learn the actual process of knitting can relieve anxiety. This is something that could have enhanced my project but I can always incorporate if I develop this idea further. I believe my presentation went well and it was interesting to hear questions from the class as it showed everyone viewed or related to anxiety in a different way. This allowed me to see that the scarf is universal rather than just meant for those who I asked the questions in my survey. One thing I could have worked on more was my key which was done quite last minute. If I had used wool in my key rather than photos then it could be part of the textual experience. One thing I learned from over the course of this semester was that data representation is extremely broad and isn’t about graphs and infographics. I am really glad to have taken this elective as I learned a new way of thinking and played around with new materials and programs.

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A R T I S T  I N S P I R A T I O N  Karen mentioned to me in the previous tute that a good artist to look into who had a similar practice to me was Kristen Cooper who knitted a scarf based on an entire year of weather. There is a very strong similarity between Kristen’s and my own work due to the materials. We are both using wool to create a scarf which represents data. However, our data inputs are very different.  Something I took out of Kristen's work which I hadn’t thought too much about was the key. I think creating a key to go along with my scarf will make the ideas clearer and also show the questions I asked. I liked how she used wool from her actual scarf rather than solid colours so there was a strong relationship and the key was very clear.  https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/my-year-in-temperatures--scarf-

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W E E K 11 This week we didn’t have a seminar but instead divided ourselves into groups based on what type of data we were collecting. It was really beneficial to hear about how other members of the class’ projects were going and understand more about their process. I was in a group with others that have done projects based on human tracking. It was interesting to me how different everyone's projects were even though they fell into this same category. 

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R E S P O N S E S  I was really happy that I received 17 responses for my survey. This meant I had a lot of information to work with. I was worried that people wouldn’t want to give me too much information in the extended responses section but I think by asking my close friends and making the survey anonymous everyone felt quite comfortable.  I’ve decided the easiest way to allow time to complete this project accurately is to have a key which indicated 2 rows per answer to questions. I’ll focus on the most popular answers and integrate others as outliers. I am still planning how it will look but I want it to be very textural and am focusing on feeling rather than it being an aesthetic design. 

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A R T I S T  I N S P I R A T I O N Kate Just is an artist a member of our class told me to look into during the presentation of my ideas. Kate does a lot of working with similar textile materials to create works and art installations. This project in particular called ‘Public Knitting Projects’ involved international and local woman working together to create individual pieces that would join together to create large artworks with a meaning; such as one which spelled ‘Hope’. This purpose of this project was to create a sense of community and connection through a craft.  Although the medium is an obvious connection between Kate’s and my work I also saw a connection between the purpose and concept. While Kate is looking at bringing people together I am looking at another benefit of knitting which is the relaxation and comfort element. Her work in extremely inclusive which I believe I have incorporated more into the data I collected rather than outcome.  http://www.katejust.com/public-knitting-projects/

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W E E K  9  S E M I N A R This week we discussed Data and Power meaning when data is used for gain such as political or intellectual power. It was really fun to see that individuals had power over really big companies such as Google or Amazon. Of particular interest to me was ‘Face to Facebook’ which was a project where over 1 million Facebook profiles were stolen and the data used to make an online dating site. The hacker used facial characteristics to set people up. It’s so cool that people can use algorithms or codes to create an automatic way to collect data from a large number of people. Maybe if I was to develop this project further in the future I could learn how to collect data about mental health from a larger group of facebook by searching for words such as ‘scared’ or ‘stressed’. However, in the time we have, I am glad I made my own survey so I could get specific answers.

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D E M O G R A P H I C I used google forms to put my quiz together as after a discussion with the class members this seemed like the easiest form website which was simple and free of charge. As previously discussed I was only asking a close group of friends. I sent a message to two groups -My group of close uni friends  -My group of the closest outside of uni friends  There was also one or two outliers that I sent it to. One being my boyfriend so I had a bit more of an even spread across male and female. Another being Joe as I wanted the opinion of someone in my class as he more than anyone understood the project and the potential outcome.  All together this was 17 people. I didn’t want to limit myself too much with the number of people and based it more on who was close to me rather than choosing a number. I thought I would get somewhere between 10-15 responses but was surprised and pretty happy to see that everyone I sent it to completed the survey. 

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Q U I Z   R E S E A R C H 

This is just a brainstorm I did to help me work out what questions I wanted to ask for my data on anxiety. I decided that only asking my close friends gave me a more specific audience so I was able to narrow down my questions. In saying this I still wanted my artistic representation to be an overview of how people I know deal with anxiety and what causes it so I broke the questions down into three parts. Obviously, this data doesn’t show anxiety in all forms but it allows me a bit of insight into how people around me feel.  The three parts I broke this into was -Why do you feel this way? -What does it feel like? -How do you feel better? I decided the best way to tackle this would be to have a ‘select if this applies to you’ survey but also because I couldn’t list every possible answer I added a short answer question where people could type in other answers. I did a lot of research on what symptoms could be seen in people my age group and of a similar demographic so that I didn’t base the answers on my own personal experiences.  

Some resources I used as a guide: https://www.beyondblue.org.au/the-facts/anxiety-and-depression-checklist-k10 https://patient.info/doctor/generalised-anxiety-disorder-assessment-gad-7 https://www.integration.samhsa.gov/clinical-practice/GAD708.19.08Cartwright.pdf

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A N X I E T Y    C O N F O R T     I T E M 

I’ve had quite a struggle coming up with an item which is more tactile and constitutes as art rather than an app which doesn’t really fulfill the brief. I decided to think of what people with anxiety could use to make them feel better and be comforted. I developed the idea of comfort and came up with the idea to create a knitted blanket which both represented my data and was something tangible and soft. 

I will play around with different textures and colours to represent different feelings and understandings I’ve gathered from the data.

Another thing Karen mentioned was to limit my data collection to my friendship group rather than to everyone on facebook. This makes it a more personal project. 

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W E E K  7  S E M I N A R  Data and the body was an interesting seminar because it had relations to wear my final project might go. I was especially interested in Lauren Mcarthys Antidaydreaming scarf which vibrates when it feels the wearer drifting off to remind them to snap out of their daydreams and become more social. I would like to incorporate a purpose into my final project so that it does more than just show the final data but I think I’d have to work a lot harder trying to learn code which I found really hard.

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B R A I N S T O R M

A quick mind map I did to come up with some ideas for next weeks milestone review. I’ve never done a milestone review before but think it will encourage to get a move on with my ideas rather than overthink things and spend too much time in the ideas stage. I’d like to do something related to mental health that will have a positive impact or outcome. It’s a topic I find very interesting and I think there is a lot of different opinions and ideas to be shared. 

I have had a look at existing data online but find it confusing and complex so I think will collect my own data by making an online survey and posting it on Facebook for feedback. 

I’m not sure where I will take the information and how I will present it yet.

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An idea I'd love to do but it would be almost impossible:

 I am very interested in true crime and the psychology behind it. I would love to research and personality traits and upbringing of serial killers and find similarity and differences between them to do almost a case study on what leads someone to kill somebody. This would be very difficult because it would it wouldn't be accurate unless I found information from a very large number of serial killers which would take a very long time. A lot of the information is also classified or hard to find.

 What I definitely don’t want to do:

 I really didn’t enjoy creating code on the computers. I love working with my hands so would stay away from this medium. I think it's because I found it very frustrating and not very worthwhile. Although this isn't a set of data it is still something I definitely do not want to do.

 A few ideas/hopes for final

 -Create an App (I've played around with this before and I think it would be a worthwhile skill to have)

-I'd like to do something where I can create my own data rather than just finding some on the internet

-What makes a brand successful?

-What makes someone anxious (make a survey) with an accompanying app that calms people down

-Mental health app

-What makes someone sleep well/badly

-Something health related

-What makes the people who have lived the longest do this?

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W E E K  6  S E M I N A R

Today I worked out coding is definitely not for me. I found the whole process frustrating rather than rewarding. It was interesting to play around with but I couldn't keep up with the pace of the class so didn’t enjoy myself.  I think it’s something I’ll take home and have a play within a more peaceful environment at my own pace but I don’t think I’ll be using it in my final project. 

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W E E K  5  S E M I N A R 

Data and time are something I instantly saw a very strong connection with between but what I found very interesting was how abstract some of the ideas were. A lot of the artworks focused on how things progressed over time but then there were also examples of artists who had taken this idea in a totally different way. Although it was gross I really liked Sam Taylor Woods ‘A Matter of Time.’ i loved how the video was short and interesting even though it was filmed over months. I have never really been into photography or video but this video was really unique and allowed me to think about the possibility of maybe incorporating it further along in the semester when we work on individual projects. 

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FINAL STATEMENT

Our Group; Perception wanted to focus more on the space itself and how the artwork was attracting and enhancing the visitor’s experience. We originally wanted to convey the emotions we felt when visiting the gallery but found with only the five of us that it was hard to get a broad collection of data on different emotions. We then thought that another way to encapsulate the essence of the space was to focus on the senses that the installations activated; sight, touch, sound, taste, smell, vestibular sensation (balance) and proprioception (movement).

We visited the gallery as a group to discuss how we could manage the task and the best way to break it down to collect our data. We then went back individually to take in the installations and record what senses they activated in a data table. We chose a select group of works, installations, video works and sculptures as we felt they were the most engaging with more senses in an objective way, whereas paintings would just engage objectively sight.

We decided cellophane would be an effective way to display our data as the coloured layers represented the overlapping of the senses and how the experience was heightened when multiple senses were engaged. We presented the data in order as though you are moving through the exhibition in order to create a sensory map.

Our data showed that sight was evident in all of the installations whereas smell was only evident in one. If we were to collect the data differently we would effectively take more notice of the installations blended in with the environment. For example, the café and children’s area were both later established as installations, but as it was in an open area we came to the conclusion it wasn’t a part of the gallery.

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BUILDING OUR DATA VISUALISATION 

We originally had decided to display this data through colour because then the layers could be applied and represent the combination of senses. Cellophane was chosen as because it was almost see through we could layer and still see what was happening underneath. 

It was harder to work with than anticipated and our way of presenting it gradually changed. We were hoping to display it in squares in a box but we had issues in terms of space and durability. We were very happy with the final outcome as it created intrigue and was an abstract way of representing the data.