Butterfly is an experimental data visualization and an exploration into how to visualize soft data (qualitative) compared to hard data (quantitative). It is meant to show an approach to visualizing this kind of information that can visualize what is not proven or too theoretical or not measurable. In order to examine visualizing soft data, the visualization evolves based off of the butterfly effect from chaos theory and the word butterfly as the soft data in an ever-changing composition.
Process
How might we show data that is not true/vague/unknown? Not numbers?
How might we make a data visualization that reveals what is
not proven or too theoretical or not measurable?
not proven or too theoretical or not measurable?
How might we visualize that?
How can I relate data to user experience, can I track “un-trackable data” or “vague data”?. This formed my base theory for my project on a proposal to visualize vague data:
Vague Data ☞ Pattern ☞ Output
In this case, the vague data (which I later change to soft data) is the word butterfly, the pattern is the placement of the letters within the butterfly pattern and the output is the animation of the pattern.
Exploration that was used as inspiration for integrating type into visualization
The butterfly pattern was chosen as the design because it is based on the butterfly effect. The butterfly effect is from chaos theory and it “is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in one state of a deterministic non-linear system can result in large differences in a later state.” In my project, the initial conditions were set by me in choosing the composition and the small changes were the letters interacting with the composition. The large differences are that with each change (each letter showing up) changed the surrounding dots to a different colour, therefore affecting the letter’s surrounding environment. The later state is the final form of the butterfly pattern which resolves to the full pattern being shown and showing the viewer what they were looking at from far away at the end of the video.
I interacted with the data and the visualization knowing what it will look like but to the viewer, it withholds the full visualization. This makes the viewer see the visualization in parts and think about what is being presented to them. The original visualization is manipulated to become a series, and only at the end of the video, it makes a whole composition. Separately, each part is a composition in itself but all compositions make a whole composition. The bright colours against a dark background are from referencing the computer-generated visuals of the butterfly effect.
In the end, I still accomplished my original goals and objectives that I set out when proposing my idea before designing:
1. The artwork will evolve itself based off of the choices used
2. The artwork itself is influenced by the human presence/actions
3. The output of the artwork is predefined by myself and changed by the participant*
*The word participant can be dualistic. As the designer, I can be considered the participant as I was the one interacting with the composition and changing it and a participant can also be the viewer where they are the one piecing together the visualization, therefore they are changing their perspective of the visualization.
If you'd like to see a more in-depth explanation of my project, please visit: https://caitlinmlewis.com/thesis
