Visualizing in the Messyverse

VISUALIZING IN THE MESSYVERSE

(with Halvor Halvorson and Jessica Santone)
2023

In this collaborative science-art project we imagine and propose alternate data visualization/data storytelling methods in water quality research contexts.
Bringing together the fields of art, art history, water quality research, chemistry and ecology, we engaged in a series of conversations about how water quality data is gathered, accessed, analyzed and presented. Throughout these conversations the varied experiences, working processes, and methodologies of artist, art historian, and research scientist were revealed and compared. Core questions posed in each conversation led to more questions, information sharing, and storytelling.

Emergent themes from these conversations include:

Curiosity is the starting point for cross-disciplinary conversation.
Tools and materials are integral to water quality research and art processes.
Data visualizations leave out most experiential and place-based aspects of water quality research and understanding; art methods and techniques can open up possibilities for wider noticing and deeper connections to places.
Scientific research, like art processes, is often messy.

An outcome of these conversations was a participatory artwork in the form of a workshop and installation.

Participatory workshop and installation of mixed media drawings and workshop supplies (aluminum trays, liquid watercolor, ruler, watercolor paper, pipettes)

8” x 8” each drawing

The grid of drawings and trays of materials displayed are remnants of a participatory pedagogical workshop on “Storytelling for Stoichiometry Research and Data” hosted by Jessica Santone and Vaughn Bell at the Conference on Biological Stoichiometry at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln on March 21, 2023. Attendees responded to the following scored instructions, prompting reconsideration of the normative ways that scientists report on their research and visualize their data:

Chapter 1. Make a grid. Tell a story with water and science research materials. Notice how the water flows.

Chapter 2. Picture the place where you work. Notice your choices in what to include and what scale to depict.

Chapter 3. Visualize your research. Draw the process of your research; draw the results of your research. Notice how time is portrayed in your drawings.

Other collaborators include: Linnea Rock, Casey Brucker, Erin Larson, as well as Katie Anania, Dorota Biczel, and Cooper Stiglitz.

Visualizing in the Messyverse was created through the Art, Data Environments program of the Stoich project https://stoichproject.wordpress.com/stoich/the-stoich-project/ at the Conference on Biological Stoichoimetry.