Assignment 1 Documentation
Data Characteristics
The two data sets I looked at were the Australian dollar to United State dollar exchange rate and the number of short term departures by Australian citizens. From these, I collected data for each month in January 2005 to January 2009. I then also looked at data for the number of arrivals in this period and graphed everything together using Many Eyes.
The most significant trend was the sudden drop in exchange rate during July 2008. Only about three months later, the number of Australian departures slowly started decreasing each month. This shows that the he dropped value of the AUS dollar slowly influenced the number of Australians going on holidays.
Another obvious pattern is visible in January 2005 to the time when the exchange rate dropped (July 2008), both number of departures and AUD/USD exchange rate were slowly rising over the few years. Due to the rising value of AUD during this period, more Australians were going overseas. The AUD value was rising high, which meant that 'money value' was not lost during currency conversions.
One thing that the exchange rate didn't seem to affect was the number of tourists coming. I predicted that perhaps there would be at least some change, such as the number increasing. Instead the number of arrivals appeared to have decreased from May 2008 onwards.
Design Rationale
I wanted my sculpture to be clean, neat and something that also represented my data and trends in a consistent, structural yet interesting way.
I originally started thinking about the positioning of my data and drew sketches of pretty petal designs that stacked up and twirling vertically (to hang from a ceiling). I thought of using each petal to represent each month during Jan 05 - Jan 09, but I felt this was quite similar to one of the examples Andrew showed us.
I then thought about interactivity and came up with something similar to rib bone structures. Allowing the user to move the backbone, curl it around and look through each bone to see the data. The data would be mapped as the gaps so that the viewer could see the different shapes of gaps. However from the presentation feedback I realised the trend would not be shown as clearly. Also the viewer moving the backbone would affect how the trend is shown; meaning the viewer can control the data? This was not what I wanted to show.
Mapping Technique
For materials I chose transparent perspex because I wanted my sculpture to be clean and neat in representing its data. I was also interested in the different light reflections it would make from my 'bone' pieces.
To illustrate my trend of a slow build up of tension and then sudden drop, I decided to manipulate the shape of the backbone structure. The backbone curve is driven by this trend, that is, it slowly draws up before turning to a steep slope.
The lengths of each 'bone' piece were driven by the number of departures and arrivals for each month. The reason why I made the bone piece sharp and angular was because I knew if I were to work with transparent perspex, it would create interesting shapes, especially when stacked horizontally with many of the same shape. I wanted to make something visually strange yet sharp, hence the consistency of the top and bottom angular shapes.
The 49 pieces (for each month) hang in slots on the curved backbone structure. I created slots instead of glueing the pieces together because I wanted people to be able to remove a piece, and look at the different lengths of the sides. They would be able to compare pieces from different dates.
Also the resulting shapes from the differing bone lengths illustrate the data patterns from the number of arrivals and departures. People can look from the bottom and up into the 'bones' to see different shapes and gaps formed by the different lengths.
Overall from the different shapes on each side of the sculpture (arrivals and departures) people can see how numbers decreased and increased over time.
Design Process
Scaling Data
Using Processing, I was able to scale my data for number of departures and number of arrivals to a range between 3cm - 4.5cm. The code takes my data and uses the maximum and minimum values to plot the data into a new set range (the values in the black box).
Designing
First I scanned in my sketch of the backbone curve to use as a reference image in Maya. After drawing the backbone curve, I made some pieces for the sides and base, and organised them (in perspective view) to have a rough idea on how they'd connect.
I then switched to using Rhinoceros because it was much easier to draw using accurate measurements (millimeter grid). Also the linear dimension tool was efficient in checking dimensions.
In the right screen shot I was still in process of making my 49 pieces.
After I finished drawing every piece, I scaled them all and cleaned the file up. I then imported the file into Autocad where I reorganised the positioning and added text labelling.
Laser Cutting and Building Sculpture
Photo of the laser cutter cutting my design.
After it finished cutting.
I then organised all my pieces by year and cleaned every piece using methylated spirits. I also super glued the base, sides and backbone curve altogether.
Difficulties Encountered
One of the main problems was the sides of the stand being too short. The two last pieces (Dec 08 and Jan 09) were long and hence were not able to "float" like the other pieces. I stupidly did not think about the height while choosing the lengths for the stand.
Another silly problem was the base being too thin, making the sculpture unable to stand for a long period. I should have made it much wider than 1cm. I seriously failed at considering the sculpture's balance.
My dad had spare pieces of perspex from his job as a sign maker (7 years ago). They were obviously, extremely old and thus hard to remove the brown wrapping. I simply soaked them in mineral turpentine, which made peeling the wrapping easy. I then started positioning the sculpture's 'frame' to see the different methods I can use to make my stand.
The left photo has just two pieces supporting the sculpture while the middle and right photos include a base. The middle photo seemed most visually pleasing and stable, however the round circle was a leftover perspex scrap from Andrew's gears. The right photo uses a square thing from a 2008 calendar I had. In the end I glued the pieces like photo one and then hooked all my 49 pieces onto the curve. This method failed as the stand had no bottom support, making it really easy to knock over with a simple push.
In the end I decided to make a base with my leftover perspex (from laser cutting). My dad used his saw tool (not sure of the name but that metal round disc is dead sharp; in that photo its spinning fast so you can't see the sharp spikes) to cut out a rectangle for me.
Final Data Sculpture
Number of Arrivals side
Number of Departures side
Top view
This photo doesn't have a light background, but I thought I'd add it so you can see the reflections from sunlight.
Research and Data sources
Australian Bureau of Statistics: Overseas Arrivals and Departures, Australia, Jan 2009 Catalogue no. 3401.0.
http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/3401.0Main+Features1Jan%202009
Table 1. Total Movement, Arrivals - Category of Movement
Table 2. Total Movement, Departures - Category of Movement
Reserve Bank of Australia: Exchange Rates: July 1969 to latest complete month of current year
http://www.rba.gov.au/Statistics/HistoricalExchangeRates/index.html
Many Eyes - Data Visualisation Tool
http://manyeyes.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/
The two data sets I looked at were the Australian dollar to United State dollar exchange rate and the number of short term departures by Australian citizens. From these, I collected data for each month in January 2005 to January 2009. I then also looked at data for the number of arrivals in this period and graphed everything together using Many Eyes.
The most significant trend was the sudden drop in exchange rate during July 2008. Only about three months later, the number of Australian departures slowly started decreasing each month. This shows that the he dropped value of the AUS dollar slowly influenced the number of Australians going on holidays.
Another obvious pattern is visible in January 2005 to the time when the exchange rate dropped (July 2008), both number of departures and AUD/USD exchange rate were slowly rising over the few years. Due to the rising value of AUD during this period, more Australians were going overseas. The AUD value was rising high, which meant that 'money value' was not lost during currency conversions.
One thing that the exchange rate didn't seem to affect was the number of tourists coming. I predicted that perhaps there would be at least some change, such as the number increasing. Instead the number of arrivals appeared to have decreased from May 2008 onwards.
Design Rationale
I wanted my sculpture to be clean, neat and something that also represented my data and trends in a consistent, structural yet interesting way.
I originally started thinking about the positioning of my data and drew sketches of pretty petal designs that stacked up and twirling vertically (to hang from a ceiling). I thought of using each petal to represent each month during Jan 05 - Jan 09, but I felt this was quite similar to one of the examples Andrew showed us.
I then thought about interactivity and came up with something similar to rib bone structures. Allowing the user to move the backbone, curl it around and look through each bone to see the data. The data would be mapped as the gaps so that the viewer could see the different shapes of gaps. However from the presentation feedback I realised the trend would not be shown as clearly. Also the viewer moving the backbone would affect how the trend is shown; meaning the viewer can control the data? This was not what I wanted to show.
Mapping Technique
For materials I chose transparent perspex because I wanted my sculpture to be clean and neat in representing its data. I was also interested in the different light reflections it would make from my 'bone' pieces.
To illustrate my trend of a slow build up of tension and then sudden drop, I decided to manipulate the shape of the backbone structure. The backbone curve is driven by this trend, that is, it slowly draws up before turning to a steep slope.
The lengths of each 'bone' piece were driven by the number of departures and arrivals for each month. The reason why I made the bone piece sharp and angular was because I knew if I were to work with transparent perspex, it would create interesting shapes, especially when stacked horizontally with many of the same shape. I wanted to make something visually strange yet sharp, hence the consistency of the top and bottom angular shapes.
The 49 pieces (for each month) hang in slots on the curved backbone structure. I created slots instead of glueing the pieces together because I wanted people to be able to remove a piece, and look at the different lengths of the sides. They would be able to compare pieces from different dates.
Also the resulting shapes from the differing bone lengths illustrate the data patterns from the number of arrivals and departures. People can look from the bottom and up into the 'bones' to see different shapes and gaps formed by the different lengths.
Overall from the different shapes on each side of the sculpture (arrivals and departures) people can see how numbers decreased and increased over time.
Design Process
Scaling Data
Using Processing, I was able to scale my data for number of departures and number of arrivals to a range between 3cm - 4.5cm. The code takes my data and uses the maximum and minimum values to plot the data into a new set range (the values in the black box).
Designing
First I scanned in my sketch of the backbone curve to use as a reference image in Maya. After drawing the backbone curve, I made some pieces for the sides and base, and organised them (in perspective view) to have a rough idea on how they'd connect.
I then switched to using Rhinoceros because it was much easier to draw using accurate measurements (millimeter grid). Also the linear dimension tool was efficient in checking dimensions.
In the right screen shot I was still in process of making my 49 pieces.
After I finished drawing every piece, I scaled them all and cleaned the file up. I then imported the file into Autocad where I reorganised the positioning and added text labelling.
Laser Cutting and Building Sculpture
Photo of the laser cutter cutting my design.
After it finished cutting.
I then organised all my pieces by year and cleaned every piece using methylated spirits. I also super glued the base, sides and backbone curve altogether.
Difficulties Encountered
One of the main problems was the sides of the stand being too short. The two last pieces (Dec 08 and Jan 09) were long and hence were not able to "float" like the other pieces. I stupidly did not think about the height while choosing the lengths for the stand.
Another silly problem was the base being too thin, making the sculpture unable to stand for a long period. I should have made it much wider than 1cm. I seriously failed at considering the sculpture's balance.
My dad had spare pieces of perspex from his job as a sign maker (7 years ago). They were obviously, extremely old and thus hard to remove the brown wrapping. I simply soaked them in mineral turpentine, which made peeling the wrapping easy. I then started positioning the sculpture's 'frame' to see the different methods I can use to make my stand.
The left photo has just two pieces supporting the sculpture while the middle and right photos include a base. The middle photo seemed most visually pleasing and stable, however the round circle was a leftover perspex scrap from Andrew's gears. The right photo uses a square thing from a 2008 calendar I had. In the end I glued the pieces like photo one and then hooked all my 49 pieces onto the curve. This method failed as the stand had no bottom support, making it really easy to knock over with a simple push.
In the end I decided to make a base with my leftover perspex (from laser cutting). My dad used his saw tool (not sure of the name but that metal round disc is dead sharp; in that photo its spinning fast so you can't see the sharp spikes) to cut out a rectangle for me.
Final Data Sculpture
Number of Arrivals side
Number of Departures side
Top view
This photo doesn't have a light background, but I thought I'd add it so you can see the reflections from sunlight.
Research and Data sources
Australian Bureau of Statistics: Overseas Arrivals and Departures, Australia, Jan 2009 Catalogue no. 3401.0.
http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/3401.0Main+Features1Jan%202009
Table 1. Total Movement, Arrivals - Category of Movement
Table 2. Total Movement, Departures - Category of Movement
Reserve Bank of Australia: Exchange Rates: July 1969 to latest complete month of current year
http://www.rba.gov.au/Statistics/HistoricalExchangeRates/index.html
Many Eyes - Data Visualisation Tool
http://manyeyes.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/
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