WEEKLY : 8

Data Visualization

After watching Mimi Onuoha’s video How We Became Machine Readable, I was fascinated by the process in data collection especially how the results of data collection can differ drastically according to how the process is framed. Data collection is always contextual and mediated. Important questions to ask are: who is collecting the data and which people are overlooked and missing? Since collection and distribution of data is usually in the hands of those in power, many minorities fail to be represented and lose agency to define themselves in various contexts. One example that Mimi mentions in her video is the missing data on Asian Americans in Broadway shows. Without this data, it was difficult for the Asian American actors in New York to prove the lack of Asian representation.

Reflecting on this video, I began to think more deeply about the process in collecting data for Humans In Color. Since most of the people we asked were friends and family, a lot of the data that we received in the end ended up being very similar to our own personalities, INFJ and ENFP. For example, there were more feeling oriented people than thinking and more intuitive oriented people than sensing. In a way our data reflected the saying that you are the combination of the people closest to you. Since we focused on college friends and some family members, we omitted people with different age ranges, races and class backgrounds. Overall, I believe this project made me feel more intimate with the people I analyze since I knew them quite well. The process of visualizing their personalities allowed me to connect colors to qualities about them. In some way, the process gave me a different way of understanding and percieveing each person.