When working on my art projects, I tend to focus on technological explorations. I often aim to make something that I like. Sometimes, these journeys trigger an insight about who I am and how I like to work. This post is about such an insight. Writing it down helps me structure my thoughts. Maybe it can help other people as well.

Here we go.

A Coldplay data visualisation idea

I’ve recently started working on a new idea: constellations generated by the discography of Coldplay. Ideas like this pop up when my brain links a collection of knowledge in my head and then:

Pop!

Although the Coldplay idea isn’t finished (I’ve been writing about this idea and its progress elsewhere on my blog), it is what triggered a new insight, maybe a new data term even.

When I work on data art projects, I start out technical and ask myself:

Could this idea work?

Later, when I’ve completed a technical proof of concept, move the project towards something I like to look at. What it is that I’m looking for is unknown at this point. But when it’s there, I experience a click. Projects start with a quest for a functional click, then move towards the search for an aesthetic one.

During the aesthetic search within my Coldplay project, I made a visual that has a constellation-inspired, somewhat graffiti-like feel to it. This mix of ideas made me think of something like data-driven space graffiti.

This idea then became bigger.

Space graffiti

Apparently, I wasn’t the first to think about space graffiti. A few days ago, I ended up scanning my copy of a 2018 WIRED magazine. This edition is not just an edition, it’s the WIRED 25 year anniversary edition. In it, some famous tech people predict the next 25 years in tech. One of those is Bill Gates (fairly famous in tech).

All the way at the bottom of his interview page is a short section about words that sucked and didn’t suck in the past 25 years. One of the non-sucking words Bill mentions: space graffiti.

Although my initial idea was mostly linked to something graphical that looks graffiti-like, I knew Bill must have meant something else with the term. After a DuckDuckGo search I ended up on a page of the Smithsonian Insider. It turns out space graffiti is a term used for writings on the internal walls of a spacecraft.

The article doesn’t disclose the why, but I can imagine that it allows astronauts to make a very functional environment feel more personal. It’s this thought that made me think about my place in the world with data.

Data graffiti?

My data art projects are weird things. When I think of them, I experience a gravitational pull towards them. The first pull is technical, the second aesthetic. The urge to work on these projects is driven by these gravitational pulls more then anything else.

They are a way for me to carve out a personal space within the functional world of working with data.

They are my data graffiti.

In a 2024 interview by Sagid Carter, Chris Martin talks about listening to your inner voice and figuring out what is that you are supposed to be doing. The video interview lasts 5 minutes. You can watch it here.