Creating Visual Data Online Short Course

Course overview

During this course students will learn to transform raw data into visually compelling narratives through a variety of visual arts media, techniques and processes.

The course explores the creative practices of various artists whose work is informed by data and investigates how this data is translated into engaging outcomes. These contextual references will inform students' creations in practical activities throughout the course and support discussions around the ethical considerations of data use in art.

Through the study of visual hierarchy, composition, and colour, students will analyse real-world examples of data design, experiment with redesigns, and explore new ways to enhance information clarity, impact and visual appeal. Students will be supported in collecting, organising and analysing their own datasets, including text-based, numerical, and image-based data.

Through experimenting with a range of media students will be encouraged to push creative boundaries through visual realisations of their data and develop these into personal project concepts. Group reflection and discussion will allow students to share their project ideas and developments and provide feedback and support to one another.

Each student will finish the course with a body of creative work, including data sketches, creative data-capturing experimentation, media experimentation and a developing personal project.

Who this course is for

This course is aimed at anyone interested in exploring the links between visual arts, data and numeracy, and pushing creative boundaries of visually representing data.

It is an excellent fit for practicing artists, visual arts students, novice artists, visual arts professionals (designers, filmmakers, etc.), and data professionals (data analysts, data architects, etc.). However, prior experience in visual arts or data is not required to engage in this course, just an enthusiasm to create.