An Architectural Scale Interactive Display
by Yanni Loukissas, Ploypilin Pruekcharoen, Emily Weigel, Miles Appleton

For humans, all data are felt experiences. Unlike our computers, which can only be data-driven, we must hold data in tandem with our feelings about the subjects they represent. In this project, developed in javaScript (p5.JS) we explore designs for an affective data setting: an arena in which participants can reflect on their feeling-based judgements about a subject in relation to relevant evidence. Displayed on a 30-foot wide, architectural scale media canvas at the center of an urban university campus, the project invites passersby to interact with and orientate themselves in relation to data on new stories about the environmental and human health effects of microplastics. Our project, which includes qualitative reflections on its production and reception, offers lessons about how public data visualizations can resonate on an emotional register. At the heart of the project is a human question, what can data do: not just for us instrumentally, but to us emotionally?