MA Design for Data Visualisation students represented London College of Communication (LCC) as part of a diverse line-up at London Design Festival 2023. Muskeen Liddar and Jinxiu Chen were part of the Emerging Talent exhibition that took place on 23 September last year, working with Better Bankside to showcase their work on a massive stage as part of the wider cross-city design festival.
Bridging the gap between design, data and art, LCC’s contributions to London Design Festival 2023 focused on the city itself. One project visualised the public transport journeys people took to the festival, while the other took a closer look at the river that runs through the centre of the city.
Sound, Chaos and the Sky, created by Muskeen Liddar, visualised data taken from people on their journeys through London as they made their way to London Design Festival. “The individual journeys contain a blend of real-time feelings, sounds and observations, interconnecting when they reach the shared destination,” said Muskeen. The data gathering phase asked participants to describe their journeys in a variety of ways, including rating their trip by colour, a scale of 1-10, and more.
Meanwhile, Microplastic In The Thames River saw Jinxiu Chen work with a partner to explore the levels of microplastic pollution in high-density areas along the River Thames, showing us just how close we are to microplastics in our daily lives.
“For residents of London, the Thames River is the most essential source of tap water for 70% of their lives,” Jinxiu said of the project. “This project explored microplastic pollution in high-density areas along the river over six months, using the Thames as an observation point and a location for collecting samples. These objects were remade in resin, which retains all traces of the microplastics in our lives.”
“Through the physical and local data collection, this project aims to give people a sense of how close we are to microplastics, thus inspiring them to make more sustainable and healthy life choices.”
Jesse Thompson, Lecturer Visual Comms Information and Data Design at LCC, had this to say about these 2 projects at London Design Festival:
“Exhibiting at the London Design Festival last year was an exciting experience for our students. It gave them a chance to showcase their work on the big, public stage of London in front of industry pros, fellow designers, creatives, and the broader public. Teaching Muskeen, and Jinxiu was an incredibly rewarding experience. Each of them came into the programme with their own unique skills and perspectives, and watching them grow into confident, skilled data designers has been a true joy.”
How did these MA Design for Visualisation students come up with their ideas? What was it like to exhibit at London Design Festival? To answer these questions and more, we spoke to Muskeen and Jinxiu about their time at LCC so far.
Muskeen: In my creative practice, I design and experiment with conditional drawing, connectedness, and visualising individual data interpretations. My process starts with hand-drawn sketching, but I am also very interested in process-driven testing and using physical materials. When working on a project, I find visual inspiration in elements of everyday life.
Jinxiu: Most of my practice focus on exploring the relationship between technology and human society in our daily life. My love for this type of topic probably comes from my childhood curiosity about technology. As I progressed in my studies and research, my passion led me to learn more about mixed media storytelling, looking at interaction in particular.
Muskeen: From a young age, I have loved drawing and illustration. This interest developed into studying graphic design in secondary school and becoming inspired by many artists and designers. Another key influence was being part of an art collective called the Ikon Youth Programme at Ikon Gallery, a space where we worked collaboratively and learnt from other artists. A final inspiration is my father and his many books about design!
Jinxiu: In high school, my friends and I started an e-zine that explored literature, poetry and photography. Creating a magazine brand is obviously quite complex, so we decided to share the responsibility among us. My role was to curate the theme and design the layout for each issue of the magazine. It was my first experience in design, and I fell in love with it very quickly.
Muskeen: My first introduction to data visualisation was the work of Ben Fry and Laurie Frick. I later discovered the widely accessible approach of the Dear Data project by Stefanie Posavec and Giorgia Lupi; I was in awe of how data was made meaningful and communicated beautifully by intricate hand-drawn representations.
I chose to study the course at LCC because it sparked a great deal of curiosity and excitement. I was keen to learn among peers who shared an interest in data visualisation. I was eager to delve deep into the practice and possibilities of communicating data within an experimental and artistic environment.
Jinxiu: In my opinion, the essence of learning data visualisation is actually how to process information effectively. This is a very important basic skill for me in the process of learning design.
One of the more fascinating things about data visualization is that it’s a cross-disciplinary degree. When I create designs, I like to plan ahead, and I like the idea of taking complex information and data and turning it into something visual that I can easily understand. That's why I chose to study MA Data Visualisation.
Muskeen: The London Design Festival had a call out for emerging designers, and our tutor, Henrietta Ross, shared the opportunity with the class and encouraged us to apply. I am thankful to Henrietta for giving advice, support and encouragement in the process.
Jinxiu: I first heard about it from our course leader, Henrietta Ross. She often gives us referrals to opportunities that will boost the exposure of our artwork.
I knew London Design Festival was a fantastic opportunity – this was a collaborative exhibition between the London Design Festival and Southwark council. So after asking Henrietta and my project partner, Lu, I contacted the staff responsible for the exhibition collaboration and submitted our work. They replied very quickly and said they were very interested in displaying Microplastic in the Thames River – which was very exciting!
Muskeen: I was interested in the idea that individual journeys contain a blend of real-time feelings, sounds, and observations – all of which interconnect at a shared destination. I visualised this as a generative pattern that could allude to how data is not 'static' – it can always be added to and is a changing structure. I started the project as work for our class work-in-progress show. I saw the London Design Festival as an exciting opportunity to develop the project and reach wider audiences.
Jinxiu: This project came out of the design methodology practice of a collaborative project we did in the first term. At the beginning of the project, we were given a set of raw data sets about water pollution. Our task was to find the story we wanted to tell about the data through the design methods taught in class.
Through group brainstorming, we chose microplastics as the main research direction for our project. To begin with, we carried out some desk research, but microplastics is a relatively new research topic in the world at the moment and we had less information available to us, and as a result less data to work with. To get around this, we needed more primary research. We started to think about where we interacted with microplastics on a daily basis – such as the bottles we drink water from. The Thames is an important source of domestic water for Londoners, so we started visiting the River Thames to observe the pollution of microplastics in our lives. It quickly became our main source of data.
Muskeen: In this project, I aimed to show quantitative and qualitative data, individual perspectives and a layered approach to data visualisation.
I collected data about the viewer's commute by asking the following questions: How loud did your journey feel on a scale of 1-10?/ How chaotic did your journey feel/ Did you look up at the sky on your journey?/ Describe your journey using one word/ What colour would you use to describe your journey?/ In one word, how did you feel on your journey?
I informed my design using the data set, experimenting with potential mappings and patterns. The output of a real-time generative pattern allowed viewers' commute experience to be translated into a visual language that forms an interconnected pattern. This interactive visualisation engaged viewers and allowed them to see their experiences reflected in the patterns.
Jinxiu: So like I said earlier, we chose the River Thames as our main observation point, using it as a way to see the impact of microplastics on people's lives. To get the data we needed, we collected plastic samples along the river, which was an interesting way of collecting data, to say the least. It took a lot of time and energy, especially since we didn’t have any specialised equipment. I would say it took us more than a year, off and on, to get everything we needed. We were very interested in exploring forms of physical data visualisation. So with a lot of physical plastic samples, it made sense for us to use a physical medium to bring the data to life.
Muskeen: It was such a joy! I felt very proud and excited to be involved in the London Design Festival and was very grateful for the support from my friends, family and tutors!
Spending time in the exhibition space was insightful as it opened up a lot of interactions and conversations around my work and data visualisation. It was fun and exciting to learn from other designers' work, meet new people and gain inspiration from the wider design community.
Jinxiu: We made a lot of exhibition plans, but based on our budget and the time we had, we thought an interactive installation was the best way to go about it. Neither of us had much experience in making interactive installations, so it was very challenging to complete a medium-sized installation at the beginning, but I enjoyed the challenge and the process.
In addition, Henrietta and the technicians at LCC also gave us a lot of help in the process of setting up the exhibition. When we were preparing the installation for the exhibition, LCC had not yet fully opened. It means the workshop was not open to students, but we needed the equipment as soon as possible. When we told Henrietta about our situation, she was very responsive in helping us contact the relevant technician. Luckily, we were able to resolve the issue very quickly and completed the final part of the installation in time for the opening of the exhibition.
Muskeen: The experience gave me valuable insight into considerations for preparing and installing work for a public exhibition. It was great to receive feedback on how to improve the work and make it more accessible. As a designer, it has given me a better appreciation of how a diverse audience can interact and engage with data design and the ways that a project like this can explore data literacy and push generative data visualisation.
Jinxiu: It was the first time I had been involved in a formal, non-campus-based exhibition installation. It brought me into contact with more non-academic people to discuss my art practice with. It was a process that I really enjoyed. This project was also my first physical data visualisation project, which deepened my understanding of data visualisation design. All in all, it has given us more exposure for our projects, which has led to more business opportunities.
Muskeen: Oh, there have been so many! I had the most wonderful time being an LCC student, and I feel fortunate to have been inspired by talented friends and generous tutors. A real highlight has been the opportunity to create experimental work using the printing resources at LCC (with the help of supportive technicians!).
The time on the Master’s has been a unique space to experiment, 'fail', and be ambitious. I have learnt so much from the environment and people around me – it has opened up so many ideas and new perspectives!
Jinxiu: Specialised facilities for LCC support, which have been very important during my time here. It allows me to be more imaginative and creative when thinking about all the forms my project can take.
Muskeen: Make the most of it – it is a really fun and engaging course! It offers many great opportunities to use interdisciplinary approaches and work collaboratively, and it is a really encouraging and supportive space to push and experiment with data visualisation.
Jinxiu: In graduate studies, it is essential to plan everything in advance for your studies, because 15 months will go by very quickly. You need to be very clear about what you want to get out of it, so you can make better use of the resources that the College gives you. It shouldn't be compromised by anything else.
Also, it’s very important to meet a good course leader and luckily Henrietta is a great one one. All you need to do is give yourself more confidence to push yourself to keep creating and you’ll make something really interesting.
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