Making with Data: Physical Design and Craft in a Data-Driven World

Making With Data: Physical Design and Craft in a Data-Driven World provides a snapshot of the practices used by contemporary designers, researchers, and artists who are creating objects, spaces, and experiences imbued with data. Creators of physical representations of data draw from a range of domains and traditions, and represent a fascinating, inspiring, and revealing cross-section of contemporary maker and data culture.

To highlight the diversity of approaches, this book features a collection of first-hand accounts from 25+ international artists, designers, and scientists, documenting the process of designing and creating new physical representations and experiences with data. In each chapter, creators tell the story of how they created specific physical representations of data and illustrate that process via documentary sketches, photos, and other design artifacts. The book is divided into five themes (handcraft, participation, digital production, actuation, and the environment), each with an introduction that considers the broader social, scientific, and artistic implications of giving physical form to data. In particular, this book explores the process by which those artifacts are created, surfacing the design decisions, considerations, methods, and fabrication techniques that modern creatives use when making with data.

The first book to showcase physical representations of data, and discuss the creative process behind them, approaching the topic from a multidisciplinary perspective – from computer science, data science, graphic design, art, craft, and architecture – and beautifully illustrated throughout, Making With Data is accessible and inspiring for enthusiasts and experts alike.