Data, Art, and Connection: Northern Michigan Team Participates in Dear Data @ GVSU

What if data could tell a story not through spreadsheets or graphs, but through art?

This spring, members of the Grand Valley State University Northern Michigan team participated in Dear Data @ GVSU, a campus-wide initiative organized by the Digital Studies Program, the Office of Undergraduate Research and Scholarship, and University Libraries. The project invited students, faculty, and staff to track one aspect of their daily life for a week and transform that information into a hand-drawn data visualization on a postcard.

The initiative was inspired by Dear Data, an internationally recognized project created by information designers Giorgia Lupi and Stefanie Posavec. Over the course of a year, the two exchanged hand-drawn postcards across the Atlantic, each visualizing personal data collected during their daily lives. Their work eventually became a published book and part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art.

For the Northern Michigan team, the project offered an opportunity to engage creatively with data while also participating in a larger university-wide experience. Team members each selected something personal to track, ranging from routines and interactions to moments of joy and reflection, and translated those observations into unique visual pieces.

The completed postcards were submitted and displayed during Student Scholars Day on April 8, showcasing the many different ways data can be interpreted, understood, and shared.

While the project centered on creativity and storytelling, it also served as a meaningful reminder of the connections that exist across the Grand Valley community, regardless of geography. Sarah Montgomery-Richards, Assistant Director of Faculty for the Northern Region shared, “Seeking out and engaging in university-wide initiatives like this one reflects our continued commitment to being active, engaged members of the Laker family.”

At its core, Dear Data encourages participants to slow down, pay attention, and reflect on the patterns and rhythms of everyday life. As described on the Dear Data @ GVSU website, the project is “an invitation to pause, reflect, and connect with others through the patterns of our everyday lives.”

Sometimes data is more than numbers. Sometimes, it becomes a story, a reflection, or even a piece of art.

Learn more:

• Dear Data – The Project
• Dear Data @ GVSU

By Shannon Owen

Set up like a postcard, the 'graph' or representation of the data collected is on the left and the explanation of the data is on the right.