Can you involve people with data in a more personal way? Show Me Data, an activation session held on Day 2 of WDCD Live 2017, attempted to do just that with a game. Sabine Content of GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) and data designer Rogier Klomp combined their expertise in an interactive quiz that manoeuvred participants into pieces of data. Quizmaster Gijs Ockeloen of Reframing Studio posed a number of questions to find out how aware people thought they were when it comes to — what else? — the climate. Participants donned green headwear if they thought they were aware, or red if they thought they were less so, or not at all.
Report by Anne Reenders
After that, personal questions such as ‘Who has ever used a dating app?’ alternated with more knowledge-based questions like ‘When do you think the polar bear will become extinct?’ and ‘Which company scores highest on the Dow Jones Sustainability index?’ Participants answered the questions by moving around the space to the position that corresponded with their preferred answer, which was rendered visible on a large screen. For each question, the screen visualized a number of possible answers, thus turning people into data.
Though the division of tasks between the various parties was unclear, for the sake of convenience we can assume that Global Reporting Initiative supplied the data, while data designer Klomp, known for his visualizations for the television programme Tegenlicht, was responsible for translating the data in the quiz. The Global Reporting Initiative is an international organization that draws up guidelines for reporting on sustainability. In a sustainability report an organization communicates publically about its economic, environmental and social performance.
Participants found themselves in an interactive session as they moved around the atrium to indicate their answers, which were presented on a big screen along with diagrams and charts. An overhead camera filmed the group. All results were recorded by Klomp Data Design, which will process and analyse them and release the conclusions of this remarkable ‘quiz’ very soon.
Now we’re eagerly awaiting the results!
Top photo: Participants during the live data visualization (photo Marieke den Ouden)
SHOW ME DATA was one of five Activation Sessions exploring the theme of climate action and media at WDCD Live Amsterdam 2017.