Category: UNIT 2

The goal of my work development for the final crit was to:

• Communicate the pervasive/ overwhelming nature of data collection and surveillance that’s quietly in the background

• Explore the role and question of identity in surveillance society through self-surveillance, data collecting

• Use my own experience as a mirror, but create suggestive work that prompts discussion

-> ??? How to use data collecting + paper and print as a medium communicate  my goals?

• Collecting more data, experimenting with type, layout, form to break the “neat” and communicate the amount and overwhelming factor.

1. Experimenting with content – layout, type – sizes, positions,

Over the week, I was collecting even more data. I was collecting data not only from my phone, but also from third parties such as my oyster rides, nectar card points, gps location. I use these data, the data form the previous week/s and also some of the visualisations to create a new booklet, focusing on experimenting with the layout and type to break from the neat

I continued in using print / booklet as medium, I also iterated on the size of the booklet to explore how the size of the printed material can affect the communication of my goals and the perception of the work by the audience.

The name “Quantified (my)self” was inspired by resources: “THE QUANTIFIED SELF” FROM 2016 “ & DATA-SELVES: MORE THAN HUMAN PERSPECTIVES” FROM 2019 by Deborah Lupton. The books explore the topic of the “Quantified Self” – which refers 1. to our self, that is formed and described by numbers and data and 2. A movement and practice of individuals using technology to track and measure various personal data related to their daily lives. She talks about how that is changing and re-framing the way that society behaves, records itself, and reflects on its own behaviour.

”The Quantified Self” term started with Gary wolf and Kevin Kelly, editors for the magazine wired in 2007

After printing my booklet out, I realised even after the experiments with type, layout and size, the outcome was still too linear as a book / booklet is usually meant to be read from the beginning to an end, focusing separately on the content of each page, which wasn’t my goal – my goal was to communicate the topic in the unsystematic amount of information and data that are being collected.

For further iterations I was working with the following questions:

• How can I break the linear narrative of the created booklet, create more engaging, suggestive material?

• How to visualise the overwhelming, amount of data, draw on the constant procceses, that shape/manipulate our identity?

2. Experimenting  with the medium, exploring ”craft”

Moving further with my project and reflecting on the latest outcome, I started iterating on the booklet. I used the booklet to create engaging poster – the poster was inspired by foldable brochures.

Research on foldable booklets / brochures, experiments:

The iteration on my booklet was a hybrid between a poster and a booklet, that can be engage with in different ways, leaving space to the viewer for interpretation.

After creating the digital version of the poster, I printed it out on A3, folded and then iterated on the sizes to see which one is the most effective. I printed on A1 and A0, and folded all of them the same way. The outcome offer a physical material for a viewer to engage with, it offered different ways to engage and broke from the linear narrative of a regular booklet.

*Unfortunately the A0 and A1 versions needed to be edited to reduce the printing cost, so the black background behind the shopping bills and the portrait had to be removed for these experimental draft versions. However the full design can be seen on the smallest version (in the top right corner) or in the digital version of the poster above.

Continuing the outcomes, brainstorming and research after the Positions Through Dialogue brief, I decided to focus on a thread that connects identity / social research / surveillance. I decided to explore self-surveillance as a tool to collect data. The idea was to collect as much data as possible, focusing on quantity -> Using my own experience as a mirror to data collection. The first week, I was focusing on collecting different types of data from my phone and I started with visualisations. Following to the week 2, I collected and visualised more data and printed them into a publication that serves as a diary/archive.

This experimental and exploratory publication is in response to the first two weeks of methods of triangulating brief. It serves as a diary and archive of self-surveillance-driven visualizations that can be continued, and expanded. It investigates the idea of identity and self-surveillance through data collection and data visualization. The publication operates as a real-time data diary. The data were gathered and collected by observing and engaging with the data on my phone during the period of 4/9-8/10/2023.

By collecting and visualizing data from my phone, my aim was to explore different angles of the topics of surveillance and identity, which I had been researching in my previous studio practice. Focusing on personal and introspective aspects of surveillance, the goal was to find ways to advance my research and open new possibilities for the direction my work can take. The idea was to create a project that monitors my actions and provides an understanding of my own digital behaviour and how it relates to my identity. In my previous work, I focused on collecting data from others through interviews, so this shift in focus allows for a more personal and introspective exploration.
The activity of collecting my own data, visualizing it, and giving it a physical medium serves as a parallel to the constant data collection happening in today’s surveillance society, highlighting the pervasive nature of surveillance.

Feedback from the class and from talking with student teaching assistants:

Needs more story telling / be clearer in what I am communicating / how to communicate the personal experience

If you want to communicate that the data collected shape our (digital/shadow) identities, how can you do it?

A little bit too neat and linear – considering I want to communicate the overwhelming, pervasive nature of surveillance

Tip: Try to focus more on a type and layout, rather than data visualisations to create the overwhelming feeling

Continue in data collecting to collect bigger amounts and also more persona data too, to communicate the pervasive nature

The resource I was reacting to in this brief is an extracted text from “Under Surveillance: Being Watched in Modern America” by Randolph Lewis – The author speaks to people who share their experience with surveillance, and the social and emotional implications of living in such a society. For my experiments, I extracted 4 quotes of people talking about their experiences.

Extracted Text from the book

I’m always aware that I’m being watched, even when I’m just walking down the street. It’s like there are eyes on me all the time, and it makes me feel like I don’t have any privacy.” (p. 53)

“These cameras are supposed to make us feel safe, but they just make me feel more anxious. I don’t know who’s watching me, or why. It’s like I’m always being watched, even in my own home.” (p. 102).

I felt like I was being watched all the time, and it was affecting my behaviour. I was paranoid and anxious, and it felt like the cameras were judging me. I felt like I couldn’t be myself.” (p.72)

“I don’t know what they’re looking for, but it feels like they’re always watching. It’s like being in a fishbowl.” (p.96)

Experiments 1 – Posters

Experimenting both in digital space and through publication to follow my iterations.

1^st experiments and iterations – digital space. Using the extracted quotes, I created a set  of digital posters.

Iteration: Moving posters

Creating gif and recreating the designs into moving, engaging posters

Experiment 2 – photographs + 12-pages long booklet

The Publication: