Final Work - Subjective and Objective view of the internet.  

My original concept was exploring how I could physically represent the digital world.  However as I continued to experiment with this idea I ended up wanting to explore the difference between my perception of the internet as opposed to the actual, accurate story behind websites and their histories.  

Thus, I did a bunch of research into the popularity and history of websites and also compiled a group of websites off the top of my head that I felt were significant to my understanding of the internet.  Thus, I could create a work that represented an objective and subjective view of the core websites on the internet.  

I chose to use the family tree because it was an extension of the house metaphor that I had come up with to describe the internet previously - the family system is one that is complex, hierarchical and an essential part of our lives, and at this point in our history, the internet is the same (for most westerners).  Therefore I wanted to explore how the internet would work as a family tree.

Documentation 10/10 - final, draft realisation of family tree

Preliminary draft of the actual family tree.  Super rough, but helpful to actually see the entire thing visualised.  

Research 9/10 - Further realisation of research

Updated research.  I’ve organised the research that I compiled into a proper hierarchical grid.  Splitting them up into generational ‘chunks' should help me to more easily create the family tree as it is a more logical layout scheme.

Documentation 8/10 - Realisation of conceptual research

After some quick research I have started to create a generational timeline of key websites and their starting points.

Documentation 7/10 - Research/Inspiration

Really clever, minimal way of expressing some subjective thoughts on real world issues.  This definitely has inspired me to think about how I would utilise my form - the family tree - to subjectively represent the internet.  

Documentation 6/10 - Inspiration/Research

Really interesting 3D version of charts and graphics.  Whilst I don’t think that my work will be in 3D form, I am interested in exploring how I could possible change up form or material in order to give further meaning to my work.

Dedicated to distilling the world’s data, information and knowledge into beautiful, interesting and, above all, useful visualizations, infographics and diagrams.

Documentation 4/10 - Inspiration

This website - linked to a book that was published a few years ago - is incredible influential for me as I think about my assignment.  More than any other piece of media that focuses on data visualisation, I feel that ‘Information is Beautiful’ values beauty as a method of educating and enlightening the viewer.  

The diagrams on this website (and in the book) reflect a notion that I think is often undervalued when it comes to education and learning.  That is, something visually appealing can actually help you to understand data more effectively than something that is aesthetically uninteresting.

Thus, I want to create a work that is different, original and beautiful enough that people will remember it and learn from it more effectively than they would a simple, boring set of data.

Documentation 5/10 - Inspiration

A really interesting use of data visualisation that incorporates pop-up book elements to aid the visual understanding of the data that the designer is attempting to present.

Documentation 3/10 - Research into data visualisation

Really interesting book that contains a whole bunch of information about diagrams and visual representations of data, ideas and philosophies.  

This definitely helped me to think about how different people have represented their ideas visually - especially when it comes to helping others understand complicated ideas by simplifying them visually but not necessarily theoretically.

Documentation 2/10 - Research + Inspiration

After thinking about the history of the internet and what it means to me as well as what it means from an objective viewpoint, it was recommended that I explore the artworks of Mark Lombardi, a neo-conceptual artist whose body of work comprises large, beautifully drawn diagrams of political, social and economic events (see images).  

His artwork very much aligns to my project both visually and theoretically - he simplifies incredibly complex and significant data in an accurate and beautiful way, and that is my aim for this project.  

However, my work will probably differ from his simply because I plan on creating a piece that reduces the internet to a top-down ancestral image rather than a cyclical, circular one, as Lombardi does in most of his works. 

Image Sources: 

http://s3.amazonaws.com/static.modcult.org/mc/images/originals_1976-marklombardi.jpg?1261348764

http://adamdavidmorton.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Mark-Lombardi-1999-Oliver-North-Lake-Resources-of-Panama-and-the-Iran-Contra-Operation-ca.1984-86.jpg

Documentation 1/10 - Research

Super helpful starting point for my research into the history of the internet and websites in general.  I can now start drawing up plans for my physically mapped family tree of the internet.

Un-creativity - Randomly Generated Book Poem.

Using a book on economics and a set of exchange rate numbers split into 4 and five digits, I created a series of words that I then converted into a poem.  Other than the punctuation in the final poem, the content of the poem was completely out of my control.