The month was full of travels, lectures, and launching new Data Storytelling project! So this letter will be long! And surprisingly, it includes a lot of videos! Usually, I prefer to share photos of projects, but in most of them, that's not enough! Enjoy the news from our data art community and the world of data art! I completed an intensive graphic design course in a month! I learned a lot of interesting things about different styles of working with posters!
Wow! And now I have more free time!
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Flowers & Numbers - News!
Getting Inspired for Data Art! 😁
The wonderful Liza Goryaynova came to St. Petersburg from Serbia. She founded the Tableau User Group in Serbia, works as a BI specialist, and creates stunning dashboards in Tableau alongside beautiful data visualization projects! I got a glimpse of one she's working on. 🌝✨
She is also a member of our lovely community "Flowers and Numbers"! For such a wonderful occasion, we met and went to an photo-exhibition of Soviet mosaics at the art space Shkaf to get inspired by the beautiful colors and patterns!
Liza told me about experimental Soviet architecture! We also explored the charming library where all this was housed! You could read her view here and see more photos!
Autumn meetings continue!
From the hot Egypt, data-yogi, polyglot and author of incredible methods for learning different languages - Andrey Demidov flew to our cool Petersburg. We often collaborate on data visualization topics; he was the one who once convinced me to delve deeper into the field of data art, and here I am! I handed him a postcard, and he gave me a mountain of data visualization books and cards! We also had a wonderful walk through autumn Petersburg! The world is so big and yet so small; we need to meet more often. <3
World Data Art News
Data Lions!
Colleagues from the BI field seem to have created data-lion cubs during the Fine BI retreat! Take a look at these adorable data-based portraits.
Even a little video! Such a mystery!
They take the portrait's awesomeness to the next level, making it come to life. I couldn't pass by without noticing!
Neuroknitting: Scarves Made from Brainwave Activity
Check this great project!
"Neuroknitting" is an innovative project that explores material data art by converting brainwave signals into physical garments. In collaboration with artists Varvara Guljajeva, Mar Canet, and MTG researcher Sebastian Mealla, the project uses an EEG headset to capture brain activity while the wearer listens to Bach’s "Goldberg Variations."
The system records the user’s relaxation, excitement, and cognitive load responses, translating these brain signals into a unique knitting pattern. The result is a collection of scarves produced by an open-source knitting machine, showcasing how data—our brainwaves—can create tangible, wearable art.
Just WOW!
Sonata by Birds
A wonderful project by Aila, who turned birds sitting on wires into music! It's incredible how people find inspiration in the world around them!
Neil about Dataviz & Data Art
Neil Richards reflects on the topic of data art in Tableau in this video! 🎨📊
Check it out here! He also shares insights about his book and different types of data visualization.
Never miss his videos!
The Roots of Complex Polynomials
Theoretical physicist Simone Conradi creates stunning visualizations of the roots of complex polynomials, dependent on various parameters, continuously refining the images. His tools of choice: matplotlib, numpy, and sympy. Looking at such beauty, it makes you want to replicate it in R.
Here is more beauty in motion:
Weather Visualization through Hand-Drawn Landscapes
Look at this beauty! An incredible blend of hand-drawing, data encoding through images, and animation, all wrapped up in one project. It’s utterly captivating!
The images depict a house in the woods, with time displayed along the X-axis, various weather conditions on the Y-axis, and trees representing wind direction and strength. It’s written in Python and optimized for small E-Ink displays.
Sorry for so many videos in this letter! But how could I stop?!
Open Statistics from YouTube Music
News from the Data Visualization Course with the Design School of the Higher School of Economics! This time, they explore the visualization of open statistics from YouTube Music about the audiences of iconic rock bands in various countries.
The countries are ranked by continent, revealing several intriguing insights to consider and reflect upon.
Project by Nastya Selivanova. Curator of the project: Denis Zaporozhan.
Only Mountains can be Better than Mountains...
Wonderful Silvia Romanelli discovered an old data visualization project about unclimbed mountains that she hadn’t finished in 2022. After checking the list on Wikipedia, she found out that Mount Muchu-Chhish was conquered in July 2024 by three Czech climbers. Silvia updated her work by crossing out this mountain and promised herself not to leave projects unfinished for a long time again.
Since there is a pause with the material part of the "Travel" project due to technical issues (I'm changing the attachment method and ordering parts), I’m continuing to work on the "Formula of the Fairy Tale" project, dedicated to Vladimir Propp and his functions inherent in fairy tales. I’ve already reached the element of the battle with the antagonist! BUT there’s still half of the project ahead. It's sad that nothing ends with the victory over the villain!
Data Art Lection Travel
To give you an idea of how active September was, I recently flew (4.5 hours!) to the distant southern city of Sochi to give a lecture on data art at a gathering of HR leaders from a large group of companies! I talked to them about different areas of data visualization, what data art is, and the various forms it can take! As a sweet treat, I presented a data art project based on their corporate data. It turned out to be very interesting! The trip was quick (1.5 days), but I managed to take a stroll through the wonderful Krasnaya Polyana— a resort town where everything took place— and enjoy the beautiful views. Wow!
Data Art Podcasts!
I participated in episode 142 (S5E27) of the "Data Coffee" Russian podcast, titled "Data is Art." In this episode, I discussed my journey in data visualization, my participation in the Data Visualization Society, working with Power BI, and the intersection of business and art.
We also talked about tools for creating visualizations, team roles in BI projects, physical data representations, AI in data art, and offered advice for aspiring data engineers. It was so much fun! Because I had to TELL people about data art, not SHOW it to them!
*Soon I hope to share with you one more great podcast aboutData-art in English with super wonderful host!!!
That’s it for today! Thank you for reading!
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I wish I could knit so I could make my own data scarf!!
As always your newsletter is full of creative data viz inspiration!