Text me: How We Live in Language
Data-driven artwork for Text Me, Museum of Design Atlanta, 2017
A new original work was included in the exhibition Text Me: How We Live in Language, curated by Debbie Millman at the Museum of Design Atlanta. The exhibition, featuring seventy designers and artists “is an attempt to organize, express, translate and reflect both how we live in language and how language now defines our lives.”
“The individual component of language—text—is the prime vehicle used to express the experiences of our existence—from minor moments of daily life to the grand nature of the human condition. Our ancestors as far back as the cave man have been using symbols to document and record experiences.
I worked with notifications - tracking and visualizing how words displayed on our phones demand our attention and pace the rhythm of our days.
For one week, I tracked all the push notifications that popped up on my phone and visualized them. I tracked the type of notification—whether it was a text message, an email, a phone call, news, a work chat or another app—and I noted down how much time passed before I saw it after it arrived, and one or two meaningful words from the text: a way to humanize and contextualize my tracking.
As the description of the piece written by the curator reads: “Her artwork challenges viewers to confront the magnitude of their smartphone usage. Lupi tracks her phone’s notifications, mapping out when she saw them, sorting them by subject matter and type, and detailing what activity she interrupted in order to view them. Text in her piece functions as journal, and the information accounting reflects our individual priorities. The work is a stunning sobering reminder of just how much time and energy we devote to the glowing screens in our pockets."
Legend
Artwork
Photos from the exhibition:
