Knowing nothing.
You think we're savages because we don't live in stone castles. We can't make steel as good as yours, it's true, but we're free […] You know nothing Jon Snow.
As the first minute of 2023 (EST Time) ends, I’m reminded of this moment shared between a red-haired-snarky beauty and the weirdly-named-after-a-famous-immunologist royal bastard.
Ygritte tells it like it is to Jon. His assumptions are completely ignorant of what lies beyond his world’s borders. Cheesiness aside, somehow, the message feels relevant to this end of the year in the intersectional field of data visualization x social change I work in.
We know nothing. At least, I know nothing.
We've come a long way in data visualization. But it is, still, a very young field. With much to learn. This year, we saw scrollytelling narratives, responsive dashboards, data illustrations, data-heavy reports, data designs systems… We saw it all, the impressive, the beautiful, the controversial.
But we’re missing the impact. We’re missing a bigger picture: who does our work *really* impact? How do our visuals, sounds, create change? Do they even?
We know nothing. But hey, we’re working on it.
We are learning that data is intimate. We are learning that data is flawed. We are learning that data visualization for awareness can be harmful -although we have known that for a while in other fields- or that it can have unexpected results.
Only by measuring impact, will we be able to speak about *true* data visualization efficiency.
2023, I’m ready for more data about data visualization.
Happy New Year!
Gabby
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