Shadow Tag

Cindy Stockton Moore, Rachel Blake, John Stockton, Hoang Pham, Rachel Wetzel

Explore the data stories at www.shadowtagproject.com ----- Video by Cindy Stockton Moore, 2021 --- Concept Collaboration and Data Visualization Rachel Blake ---- Data Consultation and Visualization John Stockton --- Music and Sound Design Rachel Wetzel --- Charcoal Animation by Hoang Pham Stop Motion Animation by Cindy Stockton Moore ---- ‘Shadow Tag’ is a new experimental video exploring the unseen in the OpenCity data – using a layered technique to search for traces of children, who are underrepresented in the metrics but always present, alongside impactful environmental factors. Visualizing signal extraction through hand drawn animation, charts, and maps, the video presents an abstracted narrative that explores the concept of observability through the open-structure of play. Animations, created using chalk and stop motion, occur directly on the street; data is redrawn within children’s environments, offering affordances for free play and adaptation. The atmospheric soundtrack is initially generated by TwoTone data but then layered and looped, a connected distortion reflecting the resilient joy of ‘Shadow Tag.’ A part of Data through Design's 2021 Exhibition, 'Ground Truth'

 

In the first segment of the video, data from Children's Blood Lead Levels is introduced as playground drawn graphics and overlays.  Visualized in several ways, this unseen environmental impact becomes a structure for open play, as children physically interact and use the data in unexpected ways.

 

The next section looks for traces of children at NYC city parks.  Using amenities by borough as a visual structure, a series of props physically play out the incomplete data through color coding.  This data - although accessible - does not point to the quantity or quality of play structures within parks, rather its binary existence.

 

Mapping and park inspection data is used to show geographic distribution patterns – a constellation-like animation depicts visitors over time in parks labeled ‘No Adults’, scattered balls of color depict the accessibility of parks throughout the city.

 

Physically stackable bar graphs look at one breed per borough in an analysis of dog bite ‘outperformers.’ Balancing data and uncertainty, the physical props introduce concepts of observability and controllability through free play affordances. The playground ball appearing throughout the video depicts a double-sided pie chart of COVID-19 park closures by borough and type of closure.

 

Throughout the abstracted video, other disparate charts –depicting crime stats during the pandemic, the most popular parks by borough, and amenities per park– create a visually dense environment, an unlikely backdrop for resilient joy. The atmospheric soundtrack uses tracks created in TwoTone data, generated by the project datasets, layered and manipulated into an equally abstract composition.

Explore the data stories here: https://shadowtagproject.com/data-stories/