The last few weeks have been so exhausting: violent assault on the Capital, second impeachment of then-occupant of the White House for inciting the violence, and finally the inauguration of our new President and Vice President.
Throughout the broadcast of the inauguration, there was repeated mention of the over 400,000 Americans who have already died of Covid-19. There was finally acknowledgement of it, and intentional mourning for them. There was a memorial and national mourning.
400,000!
I knew the number. But hadn’t let myself really emotionally process it yet.
So I created a data art-visualization piece about 400,000.
My first…
2020 has been a rough year in so many ways. The relentless news cycle, ubiquitous uncertainty, social isolation, existential dread, and so much more. All amplified by social media.
The attack on the US Postal Service hit me harder than I’d expect it to. I felt driven to buy as many stamps as I could, to support the USPS.
At some point, I found myself staring at the pile of art stickers I was going to give away at conferences and shows…all cancelled because of Covid.
What was I going to do with them? Could I mail them to people?
…
Wow, I started writing the article months ago, but it feels like yesterday…and 10 years ago. Time in 2020 is unlike the before-time. Here in San Francisco, we were in shelter-in-place and quarantine for a long time. With the upcoming post-Thanksgiving covid spike, we may be returning soon.
How have I been coping? Among other things, I spent time developing Smash-a-rona; a simple physics game where the player defeats viruses.
Yep, that’s right. I’ve been channeling my stress about current events, into developing a game about them.
I was working on some background research and data visualizations related to Covid-19…
What is the goal of the project?
- Support the USPS by purchasing and using as many stamps as I can.
- Send little moments of joy to as many people as possible. When was the last time you got a treat in a hand addressed envelope?
- Collaborate with as many people as possible to collect USPS delivery times across the United States, and beyond.
How does this work?
- You sign up.
- I mail a sticker to you.
- You tell me when it arrives.
Is there a hashtag for the project?
There sure is: #StickersAndStamps
Use it when you post photos of the stickers when they arrive. Help spread joy!
Why Stickers?
I’d had a bunch of stickers printed up with my…
I want to draw a half circle. It should be simple. What am I missing?
Here’s a simple circle drawn with Leaflet on a Mapbox map:
L.circle((lat, lon), {
color: ‘#9fb391’,
weight: 0.8,
fillColor: ‘grey’,
radius: 50
}).addTo(map);
Much like circle, I should be able to draw an arc on the canvas overlay.
L.arc((lat, lon), {
color: ‘#9fb391’,
weight: 0.8,
fillColor: ‘grey’,
radius: 50,
startAngle: 0,
endAngle: Math.Pi*2,
}).addTo(map);
So, is this implemented in Leaflet? If so, what are the names used for ‘startAngle’ and ‘endAngle’ in that implementation?
If it’s not, where would I find ‘source code’ for the…
I saw a post the other day where someone asked their postal carrier what they could do to help the USPS. The carrier replied “buy stamps”. This got me thinking.
I have a bunch of stickers made with my inkyDays drawings. I was planning on giving them out at upcoming Art and SciArt events. And then Covid happened.
I want to support the USPS, even if it’s in a very small way. I can buy stamps, and mail the stickers to people.
Most of my correspondence has been only online for many years. I don’t have current mailing addresses for…
Suppose we’re looking at a crowd of people.
We want to find out something about them, but we don’t have enough time or resources to ask them all. What do we do? We choose a few people, and only ask this sample of the population.
How does the way we sample a population impact what we find out?
What are the candidates saying to me with their advertising? I’ve been collecting data on video ads for some time, and recently notice an uptick in political ads from candidates in the past few months. Makes sense. After all, the Democratic Primaries are in full swing.
Having grown up in Northern California and living in San Francisco, I know the candidates are busy elsewhere in the country. They’re busy building up support for their campaigns in other states, with earlier primaries than California’s. We don’t really see much of the candidates at this point. Most of what I’ve seen of…
Warning! Possible emotional trigger.
This is a work of fiction. This was a nightmare I woke up from.
I had this terrible nightmare. I woke up and was unsure of what was real.
In my sleep, my younger daughter said “mama, we have to go”.
“Mama, we have to go”
“Mama, they’re waiting for us”
“Mama, it’s me. I love you. We have to go.”
I turned to this sweet, stubborn, wonderful child. I beheld her in all of her empathy and love, and loss. And all I could do was follow.
…
We stood beside this hole in the…
If you’ve been following what I’ve been working on for the past year, you may have heard me mention that I’ve been studying advertisements on a streaming media service. I’ve publicly written about why I’m doing it, and some details on my tech approach in the study. I’ve been approaching this as a scientist; recording what I see in the world, analyzing my data, and preparing to report my results. But I haven’t published any of my data or results. I’m still not ready. I’m not done with the analysis and report.
Kristin Henry
Data Visualization Consultant. Generative and Data Artist. Creative Coder. Founder of GalaxyGoo. http://kristinhenry.github.io/
