Unembellished Narrative: Exploring Identity and Surrounding through data
Xinyao Huang
Data is often thought of as rational, mathematically geometric numerical information, but in our life it closely exists
around us. By presenting the most intuitive visual information about data to the viewers, an unembellished narrative is
formed. These visual experiments based on personal data further explore how different dimensions of data can be explored
through multiple mediums and how autonomous narratives can be formed through subjective processing of objective data. It
is also crucial to have a visual representation of data-oriented narratives, which visibility and logic are also pushed
multiple times in the visual experiments. The ultimate goal is to break down the boundaries between data and our lives
as well as the stereotypes of it, so as to coexist with data and explore our surroundings and identities in it.
001: Sort By_Branding
Sort By is a bookstore branding design. It is committed to satisfying more specific demands of searching in a more diversified way. The project was partly inspired by the search method of binding in the Printed Matter online store, which led the designers to think about more diverse search possibilities for more professional book lovers. Information from Printed Matter; Draw-Down; Chatgpt, and a small part from compiled or physical books.
001: Sort By_Visual Graphics
001: Sort By_Visual Identity
002: THESIS BOOK
The book takes the form of a folder, placing the INDEX between the paper gaps, creating a kind of ladder-like arrangement of data that most intuitively presents the main information in the book in a logical manner. At the same time the cover contains the important design information of the book.
003: POMEGRANATE USA 3440
Pomegranate is a fruit that I hypothesized and abstracted into a database, the project extracts and records the seeds of the pomegranate and the pomegranate itself, and records the data in multiple dimensions such as time, space, and quantity, looking for data in primitive life, and laying the foundation for the concept of data in the thesis.
004: SATURATE: A DAY OF ADVERTISEMENT
This project is based on the cloth size in my wardrobe. This instability tells me no size belongs to me. It tries to reveal the body anxiety to women in China now.
005: NON-STANDARD BODY
It intensively records the advertisements I can receive in one day. It reminds me of questions how do we survive in this business world? How did we get caught up in consumerism?
006: BILINGUALS
Language is a symbol of my identity and a bridge of communication between me and my life in a foreign country. The translation software recorded my life as a bilingual person like a diary.
007: DATA DOCUMENTATION: FROM NUMBERS TO NARRATIVES
It includes 14 projects about the relationship between visual narrative and data from my perspective. All of the typography inside the book follows the template database I constructed at first. The blue bookmark on the cover is a dynamic index that can move for indication during reading.