Giorgia Lupi: How we can find ourselves in data
Giorgia Lupi: Cómo encontrarnos en los datos
Giorgia Lupi sees beauty in data. She challenges the impersonality that data communicate, designing engaging visual narratives that re-connect numbers to what they stand for: stories, people, ideas. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
for every waking hour ...
que tuve durante el día...
pensando en mi padre
avoided the worries and anxieties.
las preocupaciones y ansiedades.
than from this other one,
que al ver esto otro,
probably more familiar with
estén más acostumbrados
on your phone right now.
en sus teléfonos ahora.
que cuentan tus pasos,
of your sleep --
de diseño de visualización de datos
to make information accessible
que hacen accesible la información
mi trabajo en estos años
and their true potential,
y su verdadero potencial,
have to forget about them
just a tool we use to represent reality.
que usamos para plasmar la realidad.
as a placeholder for something else,
como sustitutivos de algo,
this personally.
to be interested in politics,
como para interesarme en política,
Silvio Berlusconi,
Silvio Berlusconi,
for the moderate right.
moderada a la presidencia
for the Democratic Party.
en el Partido Democrático.
that Berlusconi could get elected --
que Berlusconi pudiera ganar.
he knew nobody who voted for him.
que hubiese votado por él en mi ciudad.
a completely distorted image of reality.
un visión distorsionada de la realidad.
pretty limited and skewed,
era bastante limitada y sesgada
I thought, I lived in a bubble,
a que vivía en una burbuja
to see outside of it.
de ver fuera de ella.
outcome for the presidential election.
sobre las elecciones presidenciales.
enough information this time,
de suficiente información
the closed circle we lived in --
del círculo cerrado en el que vivíamos,
the data failed us this time --
que esta vez los datos nos fallaron
to two simple percentage numbers
todo a dos simples porcentajes
inevitable red and blue map,
bonito e inequívoco
that there were stories --
que había historias,
behind these numbers.
to my team by this woman.
a mi equipo un desafío peculiar.
una gran cantidad de datos
one of the most humane stories possible.
una de las historias más humanas posibles.
Italian woman astronaut,
astronauta italiana,
to the International Space Station.
a la Estación Espacial Internacional.
with the data of my mission
con los datos de mi misión
International Space Station
Espacial Internacional
la velocidad y posición de la EEI,
of live streams from its sensors.
en directo de sus sensores.
we could think of --
como se pudieran imaginar,
before the election --
antes de la elección,
of all these numbers?
de todos estos números?
in data for the sake of it,
solo por que sí,
in a teeny box
en una caja minúscula
arriba de sus cabezas,
with your naked eye on a clear night.
en una noche despejada.
to create a connection
para crear una conexión
looking at her from below.
buscándola desde abajo.
what we called "Friends in Space,"
"Amigos en el espacio",
lets you say "hello" to Samantha
les permitía saludar a Samantha
who are online at the same time
que también estuviera en línea
left visible marks on the map
unas marcas en un mapa
waving back every day at us
todos los días
from a very different perspective.
de la misión desde otra perspectiva.
about our human nature and our curiosity,
de la naturaleza humana y la curiosidad
were the drive.
fueron el impulso.
of its thousands of users
de los miles de usuarios
means designing ways
diseñar maneras
and the uncountable
felt and directly reconnected
sentir y reconectar
and the technology around them
y la tecnología que los rodea,
to the stories they represent.
los datos y las historias que representan.
de la tecnología completamente.
una diseñadora de Londres
the passion and obsession about data.
y obsesión por los datos.
a very radical experiment,
un experimento muy radical,
usando solo datos,
whatsoever to share our data.
para compartir nuestros datos.
medio de comunicación
the old-fashioned post office.
cada semana durante un año,
to get to know each other --
para conocernos mútuamente,
shared mundane topics,
sobre temas triviales,
to the sounds of our surroundings.
y los sonidos de nuestro entorno.
that we would then manually hand draw
send from London to New York,
de Londres a Nueva York,
where she lives.
donde ella vive.
is the data drawing,
en la parte frontal de la postal
of the other person, of course,
to interpret our drawing.
nuestro dibujo.
a pretty cold and impersonal topic.
check the time in a week?
la hora en una semana?"
that I checked the time,
que consulté la hora,
and different hours chronologically --
cronológicamente,
about these moments.
acerca de esos momentos.
indicate why I was checking the time --
indican el porqué consultaba la hora,
or just casually glance at the clock?
o por casualidad miré el reloj?
of my days and my personality
de mis días y personalidad
to discover and reveal, for example,
para descubrir y demostrar, por ejemplo,
collecting our data manually
manualmente por un año
that computers cannot gather --
que las computadoras pasan por alto
and the words we use,
nuestra mente y nuestras palabras,
we said and were received,
que decíamos y recibíamos,
mostly people that I don't know.
a la gente que no conozco.
to waitresses and waiters,
a las meseras y meseros,
the people who are close to me.
a la gente cercana a mí.
and counting these types of actions
este tipo de acciones
in tune with ourselves,
con nosotras mismas,
and our surroundings.
de nuestro comportamiento y entorno.
connected at a very deep level
una conexión muy profunda
we put ourselves in these numbers,
nos depositamos en estos números
of our very personal stories to them.
de nuestras historias personales.
to make them truly meaningful
que fueran significativos
to start drawing your personal data,
a dibujar sus datos personales,
al otro lado del mundo.
will never give us a solution.
nunca nos darán una solución.
the right amount of context
contexto suficiente
and intricate reality.
y llena de matices.
could be reduced
podía ser reducido
que en verdad importaban,
only through models and algorithms
y algoritmos hizo que nos perdiéramos
situaron la naturaleza humana,
at the center of their view of the world.
de su visión del mundo.
needs to happen
treated like a God --
que los datos son como Dios,
for our present and our future.
sobre nuestro presente y futuro.
that I shared with you today
hoy con Uds., me enseñaron
representative of our human nature
fielmente la naturaleza humana
mislead us anymore,
de que no nos desorienten más,
to include empathy, imperfection
de incluir la empatía, la imperfección
analyze and display them.
análisis y visualización de datos.
only to become more efficient,
solo para ser más eficientes,
to become more humane.
para ser más humanos.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Giorgia Lupi - Information designerGiorgia Lupi sees beauty in data. She challenges the impersonality that data communicate, designing engaging visual narratives that re-connect numbers to what they stand for: stories, people, ideas.
Why you should listen
What sets Giorgia Lupi apart is her humanistic approach to the world of data.
Her work frequently crosses the divide between digital, print and handcrafted representations of information: primarily, she draws with data. She has a passion for and obsession with data, the material she uses to tell stories, and the lens through which she sees the world.
Data are often considered to be very impersonal, boring and clinical, but Lupi's work proves the opposite. She makes sense of data with a curious mind and a heterogeneous arsenal, which ranges from digital technology to exhausting and repetitive manual labor. She believes we will ultimately unlock the full potential of data only when we embrace their nature, and make them part of our lives, which will inevitably make data more human in the process.
Trained as an architect, Lupi has always been driven by opposing forces: analysis and intuition, logic and beauty, numbers and images. True to these dichotomies, in 2011 she started both her own company and studying for a PhD. She earned her ddoctorate in design at Politecnico di Milano, where she focused on information mapping, and she is now the design director and co-founder of Accurat, a global, data-driven research, design and innovation firm with offices in Milan and New York. She relocated from Italy to New York City, where she now lives.
Thanks to her work and research, Giorgia is a prominent voice in the world of data. She has spoken at numerous events, universities and institutions around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum, PopTech Conference, Eyeo Festival, Fast Company Innovation by Design, New York University, Columbia University and the New York Public Library. She has been featured in major international outlets such as the New York Times, The Guardian, the Washington Post, NPR, BBC, TIME magazine, National Geographic, Scientific American, Popular Science, Wired, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Monocle and more. Her work has been exhibited at the Design Museum, the Science Museum, and Somerset House in London; the New York Hall of Science and the Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York; at the Triennale Design Museum and the Design Week in Milan, among others.
With her company, Accurat, she has worked with major international clients including IBM, Google, Microsoft, the United Nations, the World Health Organization, the World Economic Forum, the European Union, the Louis Vuitton-Moet-Hennessy Group, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Unicredit Group and KPMG Advisory.
Giorgia is the co-author of Dear Data, an aspirational hand-drawn data visualization book that explores the more slippery details of daily life through data, revealing the patterns that inform our decisions and affect our relationships.
Her work is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.
Giorgia Lupi | Speaker | TED.com