How do you tell a story with numbers?
Obsession takes six years of text messages, phone calls, and location tracking between two friends (and eventually, partners) and manifests itself as an embroidered banner.
The project is part of my 4th year thesis work at OCADU, a year-long self-directed study on making data more human. Read more about my research and process here.
A sense of conversation and growth is conveyed through flowers and vines growing out to reach and intertwine with each other. When the attraction became more than platonic, it was one-sided for a long time. The act of creating these flowers and leaves on a small scale over a large piece requires almost obsessive attention and persistence — a fitting metaphor for an unrequited love.
The final piece deliberately excludes a legend and labels for the front of the visualisation. The content of the visualisation speaks for itself and the exact quantities of each value is not important. It is the relative amount of activity from row to row and from each side of the piece that matters. At the back, hanging tags among the chaos of ribbon and thread give a hint of what each element represents.
The back of the piece is left unkempt and tangled, representing the hidden internal chaos that yearning can bring.
The ends of the piece remain unfinished as a symbol of an ever-growing relationship and live data manifestation with no end (yet).