Our Story: Visualizing.org Marathon
Posted on November 30, 2010 | posted by:Collaboratively authored by Howard Chambers, Francis Carter, Mai Kobori, and Steven Dale
The inagural visualizing.org Marathon, sponsored by SEED magazine and GE, kicked off with 93 students in 23 teams from 8 schools. Our team, the TD Astronauts (consisting of a computer scientist, two graphic designers, and an interior designer) from Parsons The New School for Design, embarked on a complex challenge: visualize the impact of humanity’s footprint on the sustainability of Spaceship Earth in 24 hours!
Our Play-by-play:
Sat 12pm:
SD: Ok. We got this this. We’re gonna make a system of balance, somehow.
FC: Prying through goodie bags, getting settled in and discussing the task at hand. Carbo loading.
MK: I thought I brought a lot of materials to play with….Howard brought a whole entire suitcase full of books, seeds, and healthy snacks! Let the games begin!
HC: One of the first arrivals. Scoped the scene with Bland and already munching on the M&M’s
Sat 1pm:
SD: Brainstorming time, grab your Post it notes. Sea-level water rise.
FC: Let’s brainstorm for 20 minutes individually and create 25 directions to pursue. This will get us going.
MK: Initial ideas : concept, materials, and narrative. Layers, scales, interconnections, balancing systems, physical vs. digital, narrative told from an ant’s point of view.
HC: Trib tab theory, bike cities, population control through girl empowerment (health, safety, education)
Sat 2pm:
SD: More post it notes. Whiteboard starting to fill up.
FC: Time to synthesize down the concepts to a few possible themes for further discussion.
MK: Individually presenting more ideas: the earth is sick, HIPPO, hour-glass, JENGA!
HC: Balance, give and take.
Sat 3pm:
SD: Can we get a cover for our whiteboard?
FC: Mapping out concepts, hopefully the narrative can develop.
MK: Categorizing concepts. Framing them to reveal what we want to represent.
HC: Trying to post the notes and draw groundbreaking ideas on to the teetering whiteboard.
HC: Trying to post the notes and draw groundbreaking ideas on to the teetering whiteboard.
Sat 4pm:
SD: Um. So which data are we using? And how?
FC: Let’s play to our strengths and represent this physically. We should showcase that mankind’s intervention into the world plays a crucial role in its destruction.
MK: Can we find data for this? So many numbers, overwhelming excel spreadsheets, everything seems to either be a downward spiral or exponential growth.
HC:How can we show these numbers to mean something?
Sat 5pm:
SD: Mental block. WTF.
FC: Let’s evaluate our space and see what tools and materials we could use in our favor. How can we take our concept from 2D to 3D?
MK: Numbers and spreadsheets everywhere! Nothing is sticking. I need a break!
HC: Simplify. Focus. Breathe.
Sat 6pm:
SD: Ideas are starting to flow, I think we’re onto something here …
FC: Ok we got it: Let’s highlight the complexity of CO2 emission and absorption rates.
MK: This would work with our concept of systemic balance in the world, and being able to represent change through feedback loops!
HC: Maybe a model that responds visually and physically. Alexander Calder!
Sat 7pm:
SD: Why don’t we show how a set of numbers balance over time? PS. Anyone for a Processing tutorial?
FC: The harmony of the ecosystem and the inter-workings of the feed back loops exist naturally and artificially. It’s like a scale – let’s combine the idea of a system with the balance of a mobile.
MK: Fighting to stay awake… trying to absorb …. fading … these chairs are a little too comfortable. Not following the tutorial at all. Why are people taking photographs of us being in the tutorial?
HC: Wasn’t aware of what “Processing” was, but it’s pretty cool after seeing Feltron’s experiments with it. Who knew I would learn programming at this marathon?
Sat 8pm:
SD: Let’s see what the ITP program is doing… hmm .. they agree – the data is not exactly consistent. Apples to oranges.
FC: Ok, getting there. A few pieces missing, but the materials analyzed and a new direction is taking shape.
MK: Back to the numbers again….oh no, what time does Home Depot close? 9pm? We have 15 minutes!!
HC: Let’s make this.
Sat 9pm
SD: Does Home Depot have any Jack?
FC: Let’s split the team in two. Girls: track down materials. Guys: let’s draw up the blueprint for the mobile.
MK: RUN RUN RUN to Home Depot – don’t forget to pick up some Jack!
HC: Scooby-doo spilt up. Feels like we are on the Amazing Race… go go GO!
Sat 10pm:
SD: Francis, good find – this crazy woodworking studio back here is perfect.
FC: We had found our way! Let’s take a break, crack a few beers and enjoy at least one our hour in this long weekend, and then the real games begin.
MK: Ping pong tournament! Let’s meet the other students. WAIT, there’s a prize? A 3D printer? Gotta have it for the Transdisciplinary studio.
HC: Almost won the 3D printer!
Sat 11pm:
SD: Good job Home Depot team. Come check out the power tools we found.
FC: Game on! Let’s bring our baby to life with a prototype.
MK: How are we going to balance? What are we going to balance? Rice ….. beans ….. what’s the unit? Scale?
HC: Researching origami that can hold contents(rice) that can be removed as well. Watercolors not working for the vellum material.
Sat 12am:
SD: Crunching numbers. Now I know why I never went into economics, statistics or math.
FC: Prototyping this thing is revealing and concealing issues that we hadn’t thought about.
MK: Midnight already? Howard is trying to convince me to make a… a tetrahedron? That’s going to be really complicated to fold.
HC: That would be a dodecahedron, Mai 🙂 These folding shapes will represent “emitters” and “absorbers” with the little flaps outstretched or tucked in. Folding away in a trance while the guys play back in the wood shop.
Sun 1am:
SD: Looking for flexible materials to create balancing mobiles.
FC: Anyone got a spare clamp?
MK: Never did I imagine that origami was going to be a key element in data visualization!
HC: Other teams are coming up to to see what the heck we’re doing.
Sun 2am:
SD: Threading string. Good times.
FC: Just slammed my 3rd Red Bull, thinking we should monitor caffeine ingestion as they do alcohol content levels, through a Blood Caffeine Content index.
MK: Teaching the boys how to fold paper – we all have our strength and weaknesses 😉 Threading strings without a needle is quite the challenge!
HC: Boys impress with their threading ability.
Sun 3am:
SD: Let’s take a stroll. Damn, this team has some crazy 3D stuff going on. Any beer left?
FC: This is really challenging – the combination of sleep deprivation and trying to focus on individual grains of rice. Exhausting!
MK: Construction in action! Carefully distributing rice into the paper baskets so the mobile balances properly. I’m getting delirious….
HC: Team work in action. Just don’t let anything break!
Sun 4am:
SD: Blurred vision and woodworking. Probably not the best combo. And how the hell are we supposed to make this stuff balance?
FC: Not sure how, but we somehow found the will and ability to find a state of physical equilibrium for our model. Seems we can take a few minutes to collect our thoughts and refuel before we begin to document and archive our process.
MK: Food and water becoming scarce – there are plenty of Rolling Rock and Red Bull though. I already have had 3 Red Bulls. I want comfort food – Ramen!
HC: Hunger for food and sleep arrives. Ginsing and chocolate for now (ramen got hijaked)
Sun 5am:
SD: Bland and the Parsons Team 2 making crazy funny noises and hysterically laughing on the floor below. Laughter spreads.
FC: Yea…..what was going on down there? It appeared that the inmates were beginning to take control of the asylum.
MK: Can I take a 20 minute power nap? zzzzzz……
HC: Both Parsons teams are in the woodshops, away from the computers
Sun 6am:
SD: Did I just accidentally print a Google page on that large format printer? Delerium kicking in. Ok: Need. Sleep. Now.
FC: The best/worst sleep I ever got. I had no idea that sleep was a considered a luxury at certain points in the creative process.
MK: Getting anxious because everyone is still asleep. Wake up guys, we still have tons to conquer!
HC: Bland’s brought a hammock! But the little couch prevails.
Sun 7am:
SD: Where is everybody? Just got breakfast. Wake up calls: let’s eat.
FC: Haha I have no idea how/why we got up?!?
MK: Waiting for others to come back to life. So nice of Steve to gets us fresh baked bread and excellent tea – just what we all need to start off the “day” – with bad breath.
HC: 20 more minutes. Please?
Sun 8am:
SD: We should really create an accurate scale of measurement tying CO2 tonnage to grains of rice. Ok who am I kidding. It’s 8am and there’s only a couple of hours left.
FC: Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. Time to refocus on the documentation process. How can we develop a way to capture the harmony and balance of our CO2 representative model?
MK: I can’t believe I signed up to do this…what was I thinking? Why are we even here? I want my bed!!!
HC: Let’s just make it balance, then get it on film.
Sun 9am:
SD: Ladder. Check. Lights. Check. Camera. Check. Whoops there goes a bulb. Cleanup. Aisle 6!
FC: I really had no idea we’re filming this, obviously neither did Steven as he was “caught” in a few of the takes. That was the level of productivity that we were operating at.
MK: Reality of time sets in. Let’s finish putting the model together. How do we want to submit our visual representation?
HC: Video recording of the mobile. Wow. I’m Breathless. It is mesmerizing and alive with its movement —maybe I’m just delirious from lack of sleep—it could also be the mercury of the fluorescent light bulb that some sleepy one just broke.
Sun 10am:
SD: Ok we need some energy here. Who’s down for a shot?
FC: Uphill struggle to capture/document our concept. I know we missed a few things, but we need to submit in TWO HOURS – time to get back to the virtual world and digitally bring about our argument.
MK: Setting up for photo shoot area. Breaking a compact fluorescent, climbing ladder, making the model move with a fan.
HC: Film captures this best. The space we found is perfect. Dramatic Light, brick + wood background. Nice.
Sun 11am:
SD: Teamwork at its finest. music is found for the video, layout details placed in, chart is perfected, blurb refined and spell-checked.
FC: Hustling with Illustrator
MK: One hour to go! Synthesizing collaboration like nothing else. Is it just me, or this is the true form of collaboration.
HC: Pulling everything together to present out concept in the best light. Editing photos, arranging words, images, film, sound… building the design to state our case.
This was such a beautiful process to be a part of. Just watching us work away in unison was something to marvel at. We were, somehow able to trade documents and feedback through a sleep deprived hybrid language that somehow developed over the 23 hours of time that we collectively shared.
Sun 12pm:
SD: Crassssshhhhh.
FC: Did that just happen?
MK: Did we just go through a natural disaster together?….and we survived it!
HC: wherew!
We designed a physical representation that explored the complex relationship
between the global emitted and absorbed CO2 output. Each vessel in the mobile
holds a volume of rice that represents the amount of carbon dioxide that
they either emit or absorb at a certain point in time. One can interact and redistribute rice among agents—highlighting the inherit complexity of the system and the difficulty
in attempting to balance the natural with the artificial.
Both our teams from Parsons took the old school path, breaking out our origami, watercolors and construction skills. The result were two dynamic and engaging pieces—an origami mobile that expressed CO2 carbon emitters and absorbers and witty video of the decline of our ocean’s coral reef. We came together balanced our skills, and visualized data into an interactive 3-D real world.
See the full PDF Illustration:
