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

​Join us for a drop-in public engagement workshop to explore the health of London’s rivers through participatory data crafting. Join any time between 1 and 5pm.

​We will utilise a dataset provided by the Greater London Authority, accessed via an interactive map on screen, on the topic of river health. We will draw attention to London’s blue spaces and wider environmental issues.

​Working from this data, 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 personal reflections, sense of connection and add to our experience of where we live.

​Data physicalization is a hands-on process of engaging the public to create crafts that encode data in their material characteristics (all levels of data literacy or crafting is welcome!). For this workshop, we will use a toolkit of our design that builds on glyph-based visualization, allowing each participant to make small personalised 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 for all 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. If you are over 18, please note that this is a research event: we would like to ask your consent to reflect and learn from the data crafts you make and the learnings and reflections they may bring. Participation in the research study is voluntary. Refreshments are provided.