How we created art from data to capture 2020 so far
2020 has been unusual, to say the least. We found ourselves in a global pandemic along with many social and political movements and perhaps the toughest situation we will experience in our lifetimes. With many people separate from loved ones we wanted to reach out to our users and just ask how you are. We sent a survey to users, we listened and created art from their responses to how they were feeling.
See how our Art Director Sebastian used data to create art. He explains his thoughts and ideas behind the creation process.
“The idea behind this artistic interpretation was to ask our users how they were feeling through a Mentimeter survey based on a color psychology approach by Angelia Wright (psychologist of Queen Mary’s Hospital, Roehampton, England, and at Carmel, California, USA).”
“After collecting the data from our users I started segmenting it into continents to reach the goal of creating 6 different pieces. For that to happen, I based the work on a 10 by 10 grid system were I deliberately placed the 100 small color squares (each color square representing the percentage of people choosing a specific feeling=color).”
10 by 10 grid system
“Once I got the overall look of the 6 continents, I started interpreting the visual information I was getting from this group color pixels, into a more delicate, well defined and powerful graphic piece, always having Mentimeter’s brand as a driver.”
The design process
“The result is 6 very different pieces to appreciate from an artistic and explorative perspective and not as explanatory data ones. With this, I wanna give our users and readers a moment to take a pause and behold how their feelings can be translated into a new dimension.”
Art for the different continents
We have broken down the responses from our users so you can see how the artwork was formed and interpret the data from the key we used based on Angela White's color psychology.
Given the results from our survey, it is important to pause and think about the different dimensions and contemplate the past months. With this in mind, you can look at the artwork and take a moment to pause and reflect.
North America
North America
Asia
Asia
Africa
Africa
Australia
Australia
Europe
Europe
South America
South America
This information is based on a survey we carried out with 673 respondents. We used the data as a way to demonstrate how you can present data, it does not represent a whole country or continent but simply our users who responded to the survey. The data was used to show how you can explore data in a fun and different way.
How to collect data with Mentimeter to create your own art:
Step 1: Create a presentation with Mentimeter. If you use multiple-choice questions you can segment the results so according to what the audience answered on another question.
Step 2: Make sure that you change the presentation pace and set it to audience pace so that your participants can access and respond to the survey in their own time.
Step 3: Send the voting link to your participants. This can be found when you click the ‘share’ icon and copy the ‘voting link’.
Step 4: Export the data to an excel file and you can segment it and interpret the data. You can also track how each participant answers, but the results are still anonymous.
