Data Swimming

Exploring interactive data visualization for exhibition spaces

About the Hidden 2 Observation (H2O) Exhibition

For this project, information science students were invited to submit a piece about water contamination. Each piece should represent a data set related to water contamination. In short, a data visualization. Exhibition participants were encouraged to explore different methods, materials, and interactions in order to convey their own data set in compelling and learnable ways.

Choosing a data set: EGLE water quality maps

For this project, I wanted to focus on a local data set specific to the local community (Ann Arbor, Michigan and the Washtenaw County area). I ultimately discovered water quality maps from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE), which contained nontransient noncommunity water supplies and residential water well sample results mapped onto each Michigan county. For this project, I used water quality maps specific to Washtenaw County in southeast Michigan. EGLE has ultimately collected data on the levels of arsenic, nitrates, and VOCs in water samples, all considered to be dangerous to human beings in certain quantities.

For this project, I used water quality maps specific to Washtenaw County in southeast Michigan:

This data is sourced from https://www.michigan.gov/egle/0,9429,7-135-3313_3675_3690-76500--,00.html.

Creating “Data Swimming”

Initial drafts

For this project, I wanted to explore ways that users could interact with the data. I ultimately focused on the idea of people being able to explore data sets in physical space. The hope is that this makes the data set accessible and exploratory to the general public in ways that traditional data visualization might not.

In order to guide users in this exploration and discovery, I wanted to utilize color to focus attention and call out “hot spots” of the data set (e.g. places in the county where contaminants where found more often and at higher levels).

Representing location and level of contamination

In order to calculate the level of contamination by area within Washtenaw County, I divided the the county into 64 areas based on land (as opposed to population):

I applied the above grid to the EGLE maps and counted the occurrence of each contaminant in each block. Any instance of a contaminant at a level considered to be dangerous to human beings counted as one point for the designated area. All points for each contaminant was counted and represented an overall score for that block. The higher the score, the more contaminants.

Each block was then designated a color based on the number of contaminants from blue (least contaminants) to red (most contaminants.

Three of the least populated blocks were chosen to convey information about each contaminant and are represented by the color yellow.

Building “Data Swimming”

From here, I began assembly of the actual exhibition piece. I first designed the contaminant information cards to hang from each piece of colored fabric.

After creating the information cards, the main frame of the actual piece was constructed out of wood and fishing wire. Pieces of fabric were attached at 64 points along the wood and fishing wire structure.

Corresponding location cards were matched to each strip of fabric. The frame was ultimately hung from the ceiling.

Advertising for the exhibition

Besides creating a piece for the Hidden 2 Observation (H2O) exhibition, participants were also asked to create a poster to advertise the exhibition around Ann Arbor, Michigan and in online spaces. Participants were asked to create two posters, one traditional poster sized 24” x 36” and a second sized 18” x 12”.