Assignment #2

“Jess Hull’s Worldy Wanderings” – Assignment #2 (Datavisualisation)

1. Build a data visualisation: scientific, sociological, ecological, personal (your own life,
for example, is a trove of data: blog posts, browser history, last.fm, iTunes, books
read, TV watched, meals eaten…). If the data is not your own, ensure that it is used
under an appropriate license. The visualisation can be either algorithmically
generated or hand-crafted, but consider how its design can help the user discern
patterns hidden in the “raw” data. Demonstrate an awareness of how different types
of visualisations are more or less useful at achieving their aims. Consult with your
tutor on possible techniques and forms to present your visualisation.

a) I have chosen to build a datavisualisation of the time I have spent overseas in the 20 years I have been alive. This is a personal datavisualisation, but could easily be the same for any other young person who has taken a gap year or travelled extensively.  I chose this topic as it is one that I know a great deal about, and could be useful to another person who is preparing, or thinking about travelling overseas.

b) The theme I have chosen is (I believe) clear and easily read.   I chose ‘Century Gothic’ as my font because I felt it was a clear and easily read type, that felt young and fresh.   The color scheme is bright and eye catching, but hopefully does not take away from the text or graphs.

c) The visualisation is algorithmically generated using the graph generator on microsoft excel, then tailored to my specifications in photoshop.   I chose a pie chart, a flow chart, a map and a bar graph because I felt that these were charts that younger people encounter frequently and would be able to read. I chose to display ‘facts’ from the charts or from data I gathered from my computer because it seems that people like ‘facts’ that they can recite to other people.   These do not nessesarily tell you what you do not already know, but display information in a way that is easily recited.

Overall I am happy with my work. If I were to do it again I would print it off as the piece is meant to be veiwed on A3 Paper, and some text will be small when veiwed on a computer screen. Also, I would use only 5 or 6 colors.

datavis-jesshull

tumblr vs. wordpress

I have two blogs, my tumblr blog and my wordpress blog. today I am going to compare the two, riveting stuff huh?

tumblr

my first impressions of tumblr were that it was very minimalist, there was not alot of personal information on there. the basic set up is a one column blog with no side column links or calenders etc. there is one theme option with a 3×3 column/row option, and of course the site allows for html so you can change the page however you want. however, the majority of tumblr’s i follow do not use this option.

due to the lack of ‘blog roll’ in a sidebar, there is the option for you to ‘follow’ someones tumblr blog. this means every time i log onto my blog, the dashboard comes up with my entries, and the latest entries from the people i follow. you should visit some of the ones i mostly keep track of:

• njmcgee: one of the tutors from this unit, Nathan McGuiness. Lots of satire, cynicism and NMP related links “Intertwingled”
• hunsonisgroovy: talented comic artist, entertaining blog. “hunsonisgroovy”
• kari-shma: young woman (i guess) posts ALOT of images, photography, borrows from weheartit and other tumblr users “twentythree”
• jess-with-spaghetti: my tumblr, mostly post images relating to my mood. still trying to get the colors how i want. “wendybird wonderings”

i think the thing i find most appealing about tumblr is the lack of writing. there are no long blogs, just one or two lines, an image, a song, some dialogue, one thing. you also cannot post more then one picture in a single entry, which i like, but i am not sure why. i think it is very easy to be personal on tumblr, people share alot about themselves with the types of things they post. when someone blogs something cool, there is also the option for you to ‘reblog’ it on your own page, for example, this post about marilyn monroe girls vs. audrey hepburn girls (written by a dude) has been reblogged ALOT. go visit.

for the record… don’t really care much about either of those women, but i would like to hope i was audrey hepburn type of girl

tumblr is super basic, it only offers you minimal post options, but with the html option there is alot of freedom for those who know how to use it. it is a great blog site.

9/10

wordpress

my wordpress blog is the one i set up for school. i made my own banner, using photoshop, and tried to make the theme a little tiny representation of myself. the blog is like a typical blog, single column for posts, left hand side bar for archive, blog roll, tag cloud (my favorite feature) calender, etc. i can also import my del.ici.ous. links and flickr photos so they appear on my the sidebar.

i have 13 links on the side of my page, 11 of which are blogs, 3 are tumblr blogs, 5 are uni students and unit staff blogs. these are great to have because i can keep up to date on whats going on.

i post LONG blogs (sometimes) on wordpress, so when i am in a longwinded mood this suits me just fine. i love the fact that with some themes you can post your own header, and you have alot of freedom with how the site can look. i like the fact that there is a comments option, however, i find it hard to get back to the person who commented, to go visit their blog. i also like that you can embed videos, audio and images into your posts.

the dashboard is very cluttered however, and my ’status’ bar rarely if ever works. there is alot of information on the welcome page.

all in all i like wordpress for the freedom i have to post essays etc, but it does not suit my lifestyle like tumblr does. i want a blog where i can post one thing and go, i have barely enough time to eat before i leave the house for uni everyday.

7.5/10

tute wk 5

so dudes, week five is upon us and in the in-class this week was to find your favourite site and present it to the class. i came up with three, cause i’m industrial like that

Website #1 – Ted Tap’s Blog

“a celebration of brain gushings and nonsense” this is the one i used in class, i said it was pretty conventional in its set up, service and functionality.   it is a fictional blog written by a friend of mine who attends UTS. as far as i understand it is a similar assignment as ours, a weekly blog, however his has to be fictional. it is web2.0 with user generated content, part of an online community etc. i like reading it because his imagination is insane and i love the idea of a guy who lives on top of a mountain by himself keeping a blog. it makes a nice change to reading another communications traditions lecture.

Website #2 – Adbusters

A culture jamming network site. this is the web version of the ‘real world’ magazine. it features articles, ABTV and counter hegemonic thought on popular culture. i subscribe to the rss for this site. the articles are informative and sometimes funny. it is not user generated, it is pretty much a visit and read site. i think it is very easy to use, clear to understand and the language is conducive to someone who likes to read anti-pop-culture stuff every now and then.

Website #3 – jess_with_spaghetti

this is my flickr site. I LOVE FLICKR. i am not a great photographer, but i do take a TONNE of photos, and i find flickr is a brilliant way to get my better stuff out there. for someone intent on selling their work i could see how flickr could be a big help, but as an amatuer, its great to be part of a network of photographers and have others leave me critiques on my stuff.

anyway, stay tuned for this weeks music video

peace love and juiceboxes

xx

I think I got it working…

hey! this is my first post… hopefully it’s working, i only tried seventeen million times to get it looking how i wanted! (that may be a slight exaggeration…)

so i am doing a Bachelor of Communications in Multimedia Production, you think i would be ok at using the internet, but sadly all i use it for is downloading mp3’s, facebook, postsecret (which i have an rss feed for, yay me), bubbleshooter, hotmail, and uni…

anyway, forgive my spelling/grammar, like most people my age i now rely so heavily on spell check i have forgotten how to spell! which is sort of sad seeing as i did a double major in english at highschool.

i think i can get alot out of networked media production (from here on out known as NMP), which is the reason for the very existence of this blog. everyone needs to know how to market themselves right? what better place to do that then the internet… just look at teila tequila, perez hilton, and all those myspace rock stars. not that i want to be famous, i’d rather just make movies till i die.

stay tuned, i am going to work out how to get my flickr stuff popping up on this profile and you all can have a gander at what i do in my spare time…

peace, love and juiceboxes

-kika