On Data Portraits: An analysis of creative approaches to the visualisation of personal data

The portrait, as a symbolic representation of personal identity, tends to reflect the social, cultural and technical context in which it is created. At a moment where technological mediation is omnipresent, data portraits appear as forms of portraiture that evocatively represent the identity of individuals based on the visualisation of their personal data, resulting from their daily activities that are digitally registered by technological devices of everyday use. This paper discusses the conceptual and creative possibilities associated with the concept of data portrait, through the description and analysis of artefacts that imply this notion. In order to understand the diversity of these artefacts, we propose a framework for their analysis focused on their concepts, mechanics and on the elements of their experience. In particular, we address their expressive functions, the types of data sources they use and how that data is collected. We then consider the data visualisation processes involved and, finally, describe the resulting sensory manifestations. By focusing on these forms of portraiture, as devised with the aid of computational means, this analysis also reflects on how portraiture can be reconceptualised to become more attuned with our contemporary mode of living immersed in data.

Content

Author and article information

Contributors

Catarina Sampaio

Luísa Ribas

Conference

Publication date: July 2020

Publication date (Print): July 2020

Pages: 255-262

Affiliations

[0001]University of Lisbon, Faculty of Fine Arts, Centro de Investigação e de

Estudos em Belas-Artes (CIEBA)

Lisbon, Portugal

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/EVA2020.46

SO-VID: d9bc958e-7f5e-407b-a539-15130594037d

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: Proceedings of EVA London 2020

Conference acronym: EVA 2020

Conference number: 30

Conference location: London

Conference date: 6th July – 9th July 2020

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: AI and the Arts: Artificial Imagination

Product

Product Information: 1477-9358BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/EVA2020.46

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

REFERENCES

J. M Borgatti 2008 Constructed Identities: Portraiture in World Art K Zijlmans World Art Studies, Leiden Art History Yearbook V.14 Leiden Primavera Press 303 324
J Donath 2001 Mediated Faces M BeynonC.L NehanivK Dautenhahn Cognitive Technology: Instruments of Mind, Volume 2117 4th International Conference, CT 2001 Coventry, UK August 6–9 2001 373 390
J Donath 2007 Signalling Identity http://smg.media.mit.edu/papers/Donath/SignalsTruthDesign/SignalingAbstracts.1.pdf 5 January 2020
J Donath 2017 The Social Machine – Designs for Living Online Massachusetts MIT Press
J DonathA DragulescuA ZinmanF ViégasR XiongY Assogba 2010 Data Portraits Leonardo 43
A Dragulescu 2009 Data Portraits: Aesthetics and Algorithms Master thesis Massachusetts Institute of Technology
M Foucault 1988 Technologies of the Self L. H MartinH GutmanP. H Hutton Technologies of the self: A seminar with Michel Foucault Amherst The University of Massachusetts Press 16 49
J FreemanG WigginsG StarksM Sandler 2018 A concise taxonomy for describing data as an art material Leonardo 51 75 79
B Fry 2008 Visualizing Data Sebastopol, CA O’Reilly Media, Inc
A. C GoodyearJ WalzK CampagnoloD Evans 2016 This Is a Portrait If I Say So: Identity in American Art, 1912 to Today Yale Yale University Press
P Hall 2011 Bubbles, Lines, and Strings: How Information Visualization Shapes Society A BlauveltE Lupton Graphic Design: Now in Production Minneapolis Walker Art Center 170 185
D Lupton 2016 You are Your Data: Self-Tracking Practices and Concepts of Data S Selke Lifelogging: Digital Self-tracking and Lifelogging – Disruptive Technology and Cultural Transformation Berlin Springer VS 61 79
D Lupton 2020 Data Selves More-than-Human Perspectives Cambridge Polity Press
I Meirelles 2013 Design for Information Massachusetts Rockport Publishers
D Morley 2007 Media Modernity and Technology – The Geography of the New New York Routledge
A Renaud 2003 L’interface informationnelle ou le sensible au sens de l’intelligible L Poissant Esthétiques des Arts Médiatiques, Interfaces et Sensorialité Québec, Presses Universitaires du Québec 65 89
L Ribas 2014 Digital Computational Systems as Aesthetic Artifacts: Practices, Systems, Processes and Perspectives 2nd xCoAx International Conference on Computation, Communication, Aesthetics & X. Porto 26–27 June 2014
A Richardson 2016 Data-Driven Graphic Design – Creative Coding for Visual Communication London and New York Bloomsbury
S Selke 2016 Lifelogging: Digital Self-tracking and Lifelogging – Disruptive Technology and Cultural Transformation Berlin Springer VS
E Van Alphen 1997 The Portrait’s Dispersal: Concepts of Representation and Subjectivity in Contemporary Portraiture J Woodall Portraiture: Facing the Subject New York Manchester University Press
B Viola 1982 Will There Be Condominiums in Data Space? N Wardrip-Fruin The New Media Reader 2003 Massachusetts MIT Press
S West 2004 Portraiture Oxford Oxford University Press
T Whitehead 2005 Basic Classical Ethnographic Research Methods Maryland University of Maryland
M Whitelaw 2008 Art Against Information: Case Studies in Data Practice A HutchisonI Richardson The Fibreculture Journal. Issue 11
G Wolf 2010 The Data-Driven Life The New York Times 2 April 2010
R XiongJ Donath 1999 PeopleGarden: Creating Data Portraits for User 12th Annual ACM symposium on user interface software and technology New York, USA

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] J. M Borgatti 2008 Constructed Identities: Portraiture in World Art K Zijlmans World Art Studies, Leiden Art History Yearbook V.14 Leiden Primavera Press 303 324

[2] J Donath 2001 Mediated Faces M BeynonC.L NehanivK Dautenhahn Cognitive Technology: Instruments of Mind, Volume 2117 4th International Conference, CT 2001 Coventry, UK August 6–9 2001 373 390

[3] J Donath 2007 Signalling Identity http://smg.media.mit.edu/papers/Donath/SignalsTruthDesign/SignalingAbstracts.1.pdf 5 January 2020

[4] J Donath 2017 The Social Machine – Designs for Living Online Massachusetts MIT Press

[5] J DonathA DragulescuA ZinmanF ViégasR XiongY Assogba 2010 Data Portraits Leonardo 43

[6] A Dragulescu 2009 Data Portraits: Aesthetics and Algorithms Master thesis Massachusetts Institute of Technology

[7] M Foucault 1988 Technologies of the Self L. H MartinH GutmanP. H Hutton Technologies of the self: A seminar with Michel Foucault Amherst The University of Massachusetts Press 16 49

[8] J FreemanG WigginsG StarksM Sandler 2018 A concise taxonomy for describing data as an art material Leonardo 51 75 79

[9] B Fry 2008 Visualizing Data Sebastopol, CA O’Reilly Media, Inc

[10] A. C GoodyearJ WalzK CampagnoloD Evans 2016 This Is a Portrait If I Say So: Identity in American Art, 1912 to Today Yale Yale University Press

[11] P Hall 2011 Bubbles, Lines, and Strings: How Information Visualization Shapes Society A BlauveltE Lupton Graphic Design: Now in Production Minneapolis Walker Art Center 170 185

[12] D Lupton 2016 You are Your Data: Self-Tracking Practices and Concepts of Data S Selke Lifelogging: Digital Self-tracking and Lifelogging – Disruptive Technology and Cultural Transformation Berlin Springer VS 61 79

[13] D Lupton 2020 Data Selves More-than-Human Perspectives Cambridge Polity Press

[14] I Meirelles 2013 Design for Information Massachusetts Rockport Publishers

[15] D Morley 2007 Media Modernity and Technology – The Geography of the New New York Routledge

[16] A Renaud 2003 L’interface informationnelle ou le sensible au sens de l’intelligible L Poissant Esthétiques des Arts Médiatiques, Interfaces et Sensorialité Québec, Presses Universitaires du Québec 65 89

[17] L Ribas 2014 Digital Computational Systems as Aesthetic Artifacts: Practices, Systems, Processes and Perspectives 2nd xCoAx International Conference on Computation, Communication, Aesthetics & X. Porto 26–27 June 2014

[18] A Richardson 2016 Data-Driven Graphic Design – Creative Coding for Visual Communication London and New York Bloomsbury

[19] S Selke 2016 Lifelogging: Digital Self-tracking and Lifelogging – Disruptive Technology and Cultural Transformation Berlin Springer VS

[20] E Van Alphen 1997 The Portrait’s Dispersal: Concepts of Representation and Subjectivity in Contemporary Portraiture J Woodall Portraiture: Facing the Subject New York Manchester University Press

[21] B Viola 1982 Will There Be Condominiums in Data Space? N Wardrip-Fruin The New Media Reader 2003 Massachusetts MIT Press

[22] S West 2004 Portraiture Oxford Oxford University Press

[23] T Whitehead 2005 Basic Classical Ethnographic Research Methods Maryland University of Maryland

[24] M Whitelaw 2008 Art Against Information: Case Studies in Data Practice A HutchisonI Richardson The Fibreculture Journal. Issue 11

[25] G Wolf 2010 The Data-Driven Life The New York Times 2 April 2010

[26] R XiongJ Donath 1999 PeopleGarden: Creating Data Portraits for User 12th Annual ACM symposium on user interface software and technology New York, USA