I'm Back!

In line with the theme of this post, here is a shameless selfie. :)

It has been quite a while since my last post. There are a few reasons for that, for example:
1) I have been too busy to post
2) most of my work has been on projects that are for publications and I am not sure how to write about them in a public format...

but the truth is: I have been scared.

I don't know if there is a term "blogger's regret" but there should be. Its like over-sharing regret. Its when you are so excited to post a video or picture in the moment, but look back on it 6 months later and you are mortified. You think - "What the heck was I thinking??? That is the most embarrassing thing I have ever done! Why did I share that with EVERYONE IN THE WORLD!!"

This is all amplified 1000 times by academic self consciousness. The biggest thing my PhD has taught me over the last 2.5 years is how very little I know. About anything. The more I know the more aware I am of how little I know. And suddenly it becomes quite terrifying to say ANYTHING at ALL! Especially in a public format. Especially in a blog when my thoughts are not complete, or vetted, or edited.

So, the result has been that I have stepped back from online posting.

I've been hiding.

BUT.

I also have been considering that this is not my nature. It is also not how I imagine academics will further the discussions around important ideas. I should take the risk of saying a few things that are raw and askew, in order to participate in the conversation around things that matter to me. Frankly, making connections with people who are keenly interested in similar things as I am, is worth the risk.

So I am restarting this blog.

But with a disclaimer:

What I post here is rough and off-the cuff. My opinions are most likely wrong, misinformed and will progress over time. My hope is to continue a dialogue and broaden the discussion. I acknowledge to myself that looking back on old posts will invariably be embarrassing, but I promise that my future self will be kind, and I will view this change in perspective as a sign of growth. 

I declare! The whole point is to participate. So here I am. Participating.

Thanks all.

Angie

TTIS and Groups using data to make design decisions

My study results!

So I made another video. It has no pictures. Boo. Maybe I will add some, but it is really helpful for me to make this videos and share them with you all. It helps me figure out how to explain things and also critique my own ideas.

Yes. There are probably typos in these videos. realistically I make these in about an hour. I don't really have any more time for this than that. I know it is unprofessional, and not befitting of a PhD student. Rest assured, my research proposal is well proofread.

But feel free to make fun of me if you like. That's what the internet is for isn't it?

Thesis renovation!!

So, many of you know that the process of developing a thesis involves many iterations. I am currently having the nail down some of the ideas I have been researching over the last two years and write a research proposal. I have made some big changes and I had to remove some of the work that specifically relates to designing schools. I feel a little sad about this, but I am actually developing a method for studying schools that I can use in future work. The thesis was just getting to big, and I am now focusing on developing the method - which I hope can be used in many applications. So I made this video to try to explain what I am doing and why.

Please let me know if you have questions. I am trying to make it all as clear as possible!!

CMD Demo Day!

Things have been sooooooo busy! I am struggling with what I can post on the blog that is not confidential or should be kept private until ready to publish. Hence my minimal posting.

Anyways, reading for my data viz class revealed this gem:

Wattenberg, M. (2002). Arc diagrams: Visualizing structure in strings. In Information Visualization, 2002. INFOVIS 2002. IEEE Symposium on (pp. 110-116). IEEE.Can you see it? where the arc hits the line that is where certain section of the piece repeat. How beautiful is that??

Visual diary 4

I know this is supposed to be a diary that might contribute to my data viz project but I am having so much fun drawing I just need to get this stuff out of my head. And I am so attracted to the graphic elements. With this pic I struggled with how to keep the dragon in the background and not to become too distracting.