Lauren Slowik 2/7/12 Lauren Slowik 2/7/12

7 in 7 Data Visualization - Major Studio 2

SOFT SCIENCE - A DATA VISUALIZATION

7IN7 1 - book scans that included images

7IN7 3 - how often I stuck with my algorithm

7IN7 6 - relative amounts gained, as perceived by me

For more information on the process and the inspiration see the previous post.

Lauren Slowik 2/7/12 Lauren Slowik 2/7/12

7 in 7 - Major Studio 2

A Process for Neither Haste nor Waste

"Devise a repeatable algorithm to find 7 items in the Gimbel Library (or Constoria library). Clearly document the algorithm, how artifacts were selected and the content documentation of the artifact itself. A project shall emerge by the 7th day from pure inspiration. Any combination of artifacts may be used towards the resulting project."

Haste nor Waste Why the title? Because I ponder, and fuss, and pick too much so this project will be firstly about speed. Not haste. Haste means something done without thought. I would like to constrain my thought to manageable increments so that excuses have no time to arise.

DAY 1

My first day at the library I immediately saw six research guides for each of the main topics displayed in colorful paper right at the library entrance. These would be my touchstones for the first 6 days. I will pick a book from one of the call numbers from each of the 6 sheets and then a random 7th artifact of my choosing. By the sixth day I will have learnt the layout of the library well enough that I will challenge myself to choose the 6 subjects and the 7th random without the aid of the research guides. The choosing of artifacts today will be done by listening to the 7th song on a random album in my iPod. once the song is 1:17 seconds in (77 sec) I will stop and choose a book from that section and call number. The book must have a 7 somewhere in the call number.

Once I have selected the books, I will choose seven illustrations/images/designs/paintings etc from each book and scan them.

That is all I can think of for the algorithm for now. I am allowing myself to change the mechanics of the search once a day though not necessarily every day of the 6 days. This will help to encourage fresh thought and trump any redundancies that might occur in the search algorithm.

DAY 2 Today I arrived at the library and had the impulse to find the 7 smallest books I could from each section of the library. Within each tiny book I endeavored to find the smallest image. Sometimes that smallest image wasn't that interesting so I opted for small but more interesting. It was really delightful to find all these tiny books. Tiny books tend to be very focused on their subject. The little-ness also helped me to keep from pondering too much, there was always an obvious choice even if it wasn't the most exciting one.

DAY 3 Today I arrived and decided that I would search for 6 books based on the research guides and a 7th totally random using the constraint of the name of the author or the title had to start with an F (F is the seventh letter of the alphabet). I would then scan the 7th and 77th (and if applicable, the 777th) page of each book. This yielded some interesting results but made the selection of the images a little excruciating since I had no choice in the matter of what was depicted on the 7th and 77th pages of each book.

DAY 4 Today I made an amazing discovery: there are 5 more research guides to choose from with whole sections of the library yet to explore!

So I took to mixing and matching and decided to go by color, taking all warm-toned research guides and finding books from those respective sections that matched those colors and then furthering the algorithm by choosing a photo from inside the book that matched the cover color. I'm pretty pleased with the results. At this point I've abandoned the original search algorithm almost completely in favor adding further randomizing complexity by making a new agolrithm each day. The constants so far have been: 7 books, 6 based on research guide sections, the last a totally unrelated choice.

DAY 5

It's Super Bowl Sunday and I'm planning on celebrating like every good American: eating a lot of meat at a friends house. But first the algorithm. I've brought Nick along and I think I'm going to ask him to compose the strategy for today's selections.

At first I waited, not knowing how he was making his selections. He came back with 7 books, all with covers featuring red and blue prominently, the colors of both teams playing in the super bowl tonight.

Then we headed up and started scanning, with him marking a page quickly and handing it to me. I also marked a page that I selected almost at random, with some quality control to be sure there was image content on the page. Only after a few scans did I realize that Nick had chosen the 77th pages of every book. I was more than pleased with results.

DAY 6 - the last day in the library

Today I arrived at the library wanting build on the loose algorithms I've been developing. Today was all white, or as much white a cover as possible from every aisle until I had 6 appropriate books and the 7th i chose from the Design And Technology section of the stacks in honor of my program. Then I began searching for images within the books that had as much white space as I could find.