Crafting Glyphs of London Rivers Health Data: A Data Physicalization Workshop for All

​Join us for a series of workshops to explore the health of London’s rivers. We will utilise a dataset provided by the Greater London Authority, accessed via an interactive map on the screens. Through the topic of river health, we will draw attention to London’s blue spaces and wider environmental issues.

​We invite participants to engage in a data physicalization crafting activity to showcase how data is not just for a technical audience of professionals, but can be approached by anyone in playful and creative ways, reveal factual discoveries, prompt reflections and add to our experience of where we live.

​Data physicalization is a hands-on process of engaging the public with data literacy to create crafts that encode data in their material characteristics. For this workshop, we will use a toolkit of our design that builds on glyph-based visualization, allowing each participant to make small cardboard sculptures shaped like colourful fish. Participants will then contribute their data sculptures to a common display, with a participatory approach.

​The workshop aims to provide an opportunity to explore complex data, digest it step by step, reflect on its general and personal significance and build community. The event is suitable for participants of any level of data literacy and crafting abilities.