Unnatural but Necessary: Tracking to Improve Self-Awareness

When Dear Data came out in 2016, I’ve always wanted to write self-data postcards with my friend who lives in Auckland, NZ but I didn’t have the motivation then to get started. My perception of self-tracking is that it is a very unnatural and imposing activity. If I wasn’t looking at the big picture, I felt that it is hard to sustain without utilizing the right data collecting method that complemented my goal.

But the other half of me is very idealistic about preserving data and personal historical footprints. In fact, I already did something of this sort. I have a secret tumblr full of poetry that detailed my disappointments and those writings has linked my memory to certain events in my 20’s. I found this exercise very therapeutic.

My perception of self-tracking is that it is a very unnatural and imposing activity. If I wasn’t looking at the big picture, I felt that it is hard to sustain without utilizing the right data collecting method that complemented my goal.

While looking through the readings, I came across Cliff Atkinson, who talked about Storyboarding the Psyche as a quantified self practice. He was curious about patterns of the body, mind and emotions and attempted to Make the Unconscious Conscious.

Idea for Self-Tracking:

1. Inspired by Cliff Atkinson’s “Storyboarding the Psyche” experiment, I’d like to use a tracker to discover patterns of my unconscious self using the Penultimate App or the Nomie app. The variables would be date, time, location and storyboard my activity in 3 areas:
   • Brain Stem (body): What activity have I engaged in?
   • Limbic System (emotions): Feeling after interactions with positive or negative people?
   • Cognitive Capacity (mind): What was I thinking of at a particular time?
2. To track from another lens which is also a good creativity exercise, I’d would like to create visual journals of my experience, particularly significant weekly events that occured in the 12 weeks through the Momento App. There’s a possibilty that I will attempt some techniques from Dear Data and learn to expand my visualization techniques through this journal.
3. With the combination of both fast and slow tracking of weekly events, I’m hoping to understand and document my thoughts and practice getting comfortable with self-tracking as an activity.

Visualization:

I’ve looked into the following sites and visualization for the project. Although I plan on using the apps and handmade journal for self-tracking, midway the project I’m hoping to narrow down my options based on my progress.

I like the card design by https://daytum.com/ and the the swiss design/minimalist treament on this example http://flowingdata.com/2016/01/19/how-you-will-die/.

By the end of the semester, my goal is simple. I want to do enough QS activities to learn the different ways to create infographics like Nicholas Felton and make data art like Giorgia Lupi.