Data Project Drawing

We got our next task via a chinese whispers line; the message I received was 'collect graphs numbers and grids'. So I used vouchers from my purse and made my own 'graph' of people sitting at tables in the Hub. The tables themselves form a grid or graph lines, and the people became points on this graph.

Books were provided for us to look through for inspiration, and I found some pictures of grid-like forms, such as a chair by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and circular images such as dandelion clock flowers to demonstrate less bold ways to represent people. In the afternoon we started drawing from this research, and I thought the self-made graphs had the most potential to make interesting marks, so I focussed on them. We were asked to work with wet media, and I chose ink and water to start with. 

Left: grid made from masking tape, ink and graphite pencil. Right: pipette marks forming 'people'

Stencil based on Charles Rennie Mackintosh's chair, and putting ink through the stencil using grid-like lines of text as a base, with ink blob 'people'. These work quite well as the structure is emphasised while the marks themselves remain fluid and inexact.

Using a toothbrush i started flicking ink through the stencil to give a sprayed effect that still has structure to it, and then directly used the toothbrush to make 'table' marks before pipetting ink onto them to form the 'people'.

When experimenting with the ink, I noticed that air in the pipette would form bubbles, which would burst, spraying ink out from the centre and making interesting marks.The bubbles themselves have a special quality about them, and like the people in the Hub are transient.

I enjoyed making marks in this way, as it forced me not to think too much about literal translation, instead focussing on marks and shapes. I think there is something in the idea of gathering my own data, instead of using someone else's. It will definitely produce a personal response and means I will always have something new and current to base my research on. I liked the fact that the people in the Hub would move around, so just by staying in one location I captured several moments of fleeting data, and showed the use of the space.