Nicholas Felton

Nicholas Felton is fascinated with data as a shorthand for the routines and milestones of our lives. He is the author of several Personal Annual Reports that weave numerous measurements into a tapestry of graphs, maps and statistics reflecting the year’s activities. He is the co-founder of Daytum.com, a website for collecting and communicating daily data, and now works on the timeline product at Facebook. His work has been profiled in publications including the Wall Street Journal, Wired and Good Magazine, displayed at the Museum of Modern Art and Walker Art Center and he was recently named one of the 50 most influential designers in America by Fast Company.

Workshop: *Hacking the Self

(Biohacking Activity Monitoring Devices and Visualizing the Data.) *all day workshop

Part I: Data Ownership Discourse and Extracting Available Data From Key Devices

There are dozens of widely available devices we can use to easily and affordably generate and track data about our daily activities. Steps taken, calories burned, sleeping patterns, our travelled paths, etc. While many of these devices offer API's to download the data, the process to do this is not always easy and the data is often limited. This workshop will cover how to extract the data generated from a few key devices as well as cover ownership of our data (or lack thereof) with the manufacturers. 

We will use the following data generating devices in our workshop: - Nike+ FuelBand - FitBit - BodyMedia Fit - OpenPaths (on iPhone or Android)

Part II: Working with and Visualizing the Data Generated in Part I

With data harvested, the second half of this workshop will explore the creative process of exploring different methodologies for visualizing this information. The artists will help you identify and understand interesting patterns to look at in the dataset and how you can go about creating designs for this visualization. We will explore pattern recognition, color usage, typography, space and alignment as well as processes for generating data-driven patterns.

Requirements: You will need a laptop with the latest version of Processing installed. At least one of the key devices listed above with at least 1 month of data being tracked. Having Illustrator installed will be a + for second half, but this is not required. This is a course for intermediate-level programmers with any level of design experience.

Breaks will occur during the workshop, including a long break for lunch. Lunch is not provided.

Session: Process and Processing

Nicholas will present recent work and explain how he has come to rely on Processing in his projects.