[MUSIC PLAYING]
In a time when information
is so plentiful that it's
nearly overwhelming,
there are some artists
that are inspired by
data and brandish it
as an artistic tool.
Just as any researcher
must do, an artist
starts by collecting data
that they wish to express.
Now, that could be anything
that interests you, really.
You could dig through
websites or books
to find records and statistics
like weather patterns
or demographics.
You could record data
from just observing
what's going on around you.
Count how many cars go past,
or how many brands of soda
there are on a store shelf.
You could interview people to
collect personal information,
such as a favorite song or maybe
their favorite type of candy.
Now, this is all data, and
it can be expressed visually.
For instance, I've
collected data
about earthquakes
occurring in five states.
So I have five sets
of data, including
the number of
earthquakes in a month,
the strongest
earthquake that day,
the strongest in
the last 30 days,
and then the top magnitude
earthquake that entire year.
Now, you'll notice most
of this is numbers.
Data is almost always
expressed in numbers first.
Here's something we're very
familiar with-- expressing
numbers in a bar graph.
So here's a bar graph that
shows you the number of quakes
in each state in one day.
Here I've taken a
piece of gridded paper
and colored one square
for each earthquake.
Now, this is the same
exact set of data,
and I've assigned
each state a color.
Sometimes, data is expressed
as parts of a whole,
as we're used to
seeing in a pie chart.
This pie chart tells us out
of how many states which one
had the most
earthquakes in a month.
Now, we don't know exactly
how many earthquakes,
just who had the most.
So on a graph paper, I've
created a zig-zag pattern.
This tells us exactly
the same thing.
Data can also be
expressed in overall size.
For the strongest
earthquakes during the month,
I chose to do a triangle shape.
California had the strongest, so
they have the largest triangle.
And the other
shapes are smaller.
Another way to express data
is with color intensity.
This time, I cut a hexagon from
gridded paper for each state.
Now, notice how
Alaska is solid blue.
That's because they had the
strongest earthquake that year.
Now, the strongest earthquake
in Texas was only 4.0,
so that hexagon is mostly white.
We've expressed all this
data and colorful patterns.
Now what do we do with it?
How about making a collage?
My gridded paper was
a little lightweight,
so I attached my
designs to a piece
of cardboard just
using a glue stick,
and then cut out each piece.
You'll want to
arrange the pieces.
It's a little like
putting together a puzzle.
It may be best to arrange
them first before gluing them
down permanently.
As an option, you can raise some
of the pieces from the surface
by placing something
beneath them.
If you look inside this piece,
you can see there's 3D O's.
They're little foam
buttons, and they
have adhesive on each side.
You just peel and stick them.
Now it's up to you
to decide whether you
want the viewer
to be able to read
the data that's in your design.
You could provide a key that
tells what each pattern means.
Or simply allow the viewer
to just enjoy the design.
I can tell by
looking at this piece
that California is the
earthquake capital.
If you'd like to turn
the data that you collect
into something as
visually exciting as this,
go to dickblick.com.
We have the graded paper, a
great selection of markers,
and a free PDF of
this lesson plan
available for you to download.
