On social media, art educators share glimpses into their classroom ecologies—from art projects, to classroom management tips, to cost-effective solutions for specialized tools, materials and more. Recently, process-based art-making methods like “pour painting”, in which paint is poured directly onto a canvas using different colors, have gone viral on sites such as Pinterest, TikTok, and Instagram. Considering the need for art teachers to make use of data deluges circulating online, this research explores the prevalence and popularity of pour painting techniques on social media using animated data visualization as an art education research tool. Using a custom systematic sampling approach, data was mined from 150 Instagram posts of pour paintings shared by art education influencers, DIY communities, as well as A.I. generated images. To animate the data, morphing effects were applied to each image sequentially, serving as a means for layered image comparison to help identify variations in the viral pour paintings. Specifically, this study assessed the impact of the “mere-exposure effect”, or, the development of preference for certain aesthetics and artmaking practices based on repeated exposure to them. To this end, this research postulates that repeated exposure to pour painting techniques posted on social media primes teachers to be inspired to shift the focus from the artwork as a final product back to the process of artmaking. This is significant as encouraging this gravity-driven approach to painting in the classroom can be more accessible to a variety of grade levels, providing students who are timid about artmaking with an inviting means to experience the space between control and vulnerability. The resulting data visualization echoes the organic nature of pour painting, and although findings indicate that these artworks are highly derivative, exposure to pour paintings opens opportunities to rethink art-making in K-12 classrooms by emphasizing process-based studio habits as form of generative knowledge.

Drip, & Pour! Exploring the Impact of Viral Process Painting Using Animated Data Visualization as Art Education Research

Who Feels Secure from Eviction in NYC? Arts-Based Research + Animated Data Visualization

In a time of highly volatile discourses and historic judicature regarding residency status and social responsibility, this project proposes using animated data visualization to create a living picture of New York City inhabitants in the wake of skyrocketing eviction numbers. Rooted in Art-Based Research (ABR), this project involves the transdisciplinary integration of fine arts animation and mixed quantitative and qualitative methods to establish a bird’s eye view of eviction landscapes, while simultaneously zeroing in on NYC dwellers’ rich descriptions of their identities. Inspired by data visualization pioneer W.E.B. Du Bois’ use of pure color abstraction to illuminate social inequalities at the turn of the twentieth century, this project aims to rethink aspects of NYC identities using animations generated from the “NYC Evictions Data Set” and data collected from participants on the streets. As animation showcases the illusion of movement, our visualization will show data in flux, functioning as an organic re-presentation of NYC residents through which we may reflect upon how we materialize and qualify our understandings of who lives in NYC today. We propose that new encounters with data using animation as a medium afford opportunities to diversify views of NYC residents and shared identities. We argue that utilizing fine arts animation as a tool of inquiry produces visualization outcomes that can be considered dynamic relative to traditional single-image techniques like bar graphs or scatterplots. If knowledge is power, we consider awareness of collective and individual experiences and ways in which this knowledge is embodied essential to the agency exercised by those in societies that continuously negotiate questions of being and belonging. At its core, this project is designed to uncover nuanced information about NYC residents’ lived experiences relative to staggering eviction rates, putting moving images to numbers that render individuals animate and visible as human beings.

This project uses a two-question survey that asks, “Do you consider yourself a resident of NYC?” and, if so, “Why do you consider yourself a resident of NYC?”. A QR code that links to the survey will be printed on five hundred business cards and will be placed in public spaces in each of the five NYC boroughs. All responses will be anonymously entered into the “Are YOU NYC Data Set”, which will be available via GitHub for open access. Once fifty responses are collected from each borough, text data from participants’ self-reported NYC identities will be animated using the video editing program After Effects. The animated responses from each borough will be color-coded using RGB numeric values based on the number of NYC residents evicted in 2022 according to the “NYC Evictions Data Set”. The colors red, orange, yellow, green, and blue correlate with five “Safety Colors” designated by the American National Standards Institute that denote high to low risk of bodily injury.

HOW DO YOU KNOW? PARSING THE INFOCALYPSE USING ART-BASED DATA VISUALIZATION

Since the advent of the World Wide Web, vast interconnected digital networks have increasingly provided access to diverse data sources for Internet users. Towards the turn of the 21st century, social media sites opened opportunities to produce and consume (i.e., prosume) data, empowering users to publish their own content online. The ability to publish user-generated content results in more voices being heard, creating more seats at the proverbial table. However, more recently, persuasive media has increasingly been weaponized to disseminate misinformation and disinformation online. Consequently, the agency exercised by Internet and social media users is diminished. What is more, biases embedded in algorithms and developments in artificial intelligence (AI) such as deep fakes have induced conditions in which many societies teeter on the edge of an Infocalypse. To combat this, educators have advocated for the importance of visual thinking strategies (VTS), digital media literacy, embodied learning, and critical aesthetic experiences. Acquiring these skillsets has become an urgent necessity for citizens of a global society to be informed, not mislead. It is imperative that citizens are perceptive, discriminating, and analytical consumers of visual culture to avoid false understandings or misinterpretations of important information used to guide decision-making practices. Thus, developing visual literacy skills is vital to combatting the use of aesthetics aimed to develop more compelling ways to persuade them when interacting with digital content. To study these issues, this thesis involved using art-based research (ABR) and animated data visualization to analyze commonly trusted and distrusted information sources that inform participants' personal beliefs. To assess the findings of the research study, the method of animated data visualization was used to create diverse opportunities for visual analysis.