Duncan Boehle – Info Visualization
My info visualization project – Sleep – is my attempt to display data from my own sleep patterns in an evocative virtual diorama.
The idea originally came from data I already had; I’ve been using an app on my phone called Sleep as Android, which tracks accelerometer data throughout the night in order to set an alarm in tune with my sleep cycles. The app keeps a graph of my movements throughout the night, and after looking at a few weeks worth of data, I thought it would be cool to try to exaggerate the motion data in some way. I didn’t stray far from a direct representation, since my next thought was to replicate my room and body in 3D to observe the effects of the motion. As I started to think about what this representation could show, however, I realized I wanted to make it more abstract, and instead focus on the effect of the accumulating sleep debt, using the exaggerated sleep activity to show the destructive nature of restless sleep.
I personally hadn’t heard of many data visualizations that used ragdoll physics in order to make a point, but some of the flairs were certainly inspired from other things I had experienced. The noisy distortions in video and audio were very much inspired from some of the more experimental instrumental rock artists I listen to. In fact, the song I sampled for the instrumental clip is Providence, from Godspeed You! Black Emperor.
Initially, I knew that the idea in my head was too ambitious to come across seriously, but I wasn’t sure how hard it would be to make a point at all. The moment that most people see the ragdoll flopping around, it inspires hilarity, rather than seriousness. I didn’t want to counteract it with a bunch of heavy-handed metaphors or confusing interactivity, so instead I decided to rely on a few simple visual and audial elements to convey the desperation of sleep deprivation. I think these elements – the oversized clock, the blood stains, the dim noisy lighting, the distorted room, and the complete chaos at the end all work very well to visualize mental breakdown.
The point of this project was info visualization, however, and I may have taken too many liberties with that terminology. The only data being visualized is the sequence of random forces propelling the ragdoll, but this information isn’t even completely necessary to make a point about a lack of sleep. Although it is a convenient way to demonstrate harm, I could have used a different type of visualization that really only focused on the sleep movements, and found more interesting results from them.
You can check out the Unity project on my website here, or you can watch the YouTube video of the project below:
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_hMDVep_dU&w=600]
Here’s the presentation version of this summary.
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Duncan Boehle: Sleep
Golan here. This is an AWESOME project — I love the idea of mapping sleep movements to a ragdoll. But that’s all you need! You’re done! Trust the data and keep it simple! I really want a SIMPLE PLAIN version of this — without the blood splatters, without the breathing/moving walls, without the HUGE clock. Also please upload a blog post about this.
How is rem sleep measured/quantified by the android app? does it record sound in any way? it might be interesting to hear a snore etc when the ragdoll goes flying
Wow. Gorgeous. Disturbing. Impressive. Help us understand the mapping.
is the ragdall bleeding? is the blood indicative of sleep debt? then where the blood spots are indicate times of sleepfulness/lack of movement??
this is surreal and beautiful and grim…. What if you get a lot of sleep? Is it just a boring clean box? I don’t really associate blood with sleep… kind of disturbing. maybe you could have a window and light spilling in could indicate sleep quality like cool/warm…some kind of indicator that shows sleep quality…. Can it run in reverse if you start to get more sleep?
^ (grimdark)
did he died at the end?
What’s your commentary through the atmosphere/music, blood? Why did you choose these besides them making it look cool?
Ragamadolls!
Sleep… my eternal nemesis. c[ ] coffee for you or maybe a redbull []
…12 minutes? I’m questioning the accuracy of this thing.
“I was really tired so I wanted to be artsy” <<+1 way to downplay your inquiry, not always good to do in a presentation Starts off great, but the blood gets really heavy-handed. +1 Interesting camera manipulations, though That furniture is withstanding some serious punishment. Also, cleanup's going to be a bitch, I think it is an interesting project idea to correlate sleep patterns with emotional responses! +1 but I am a little confused with data visualization regards to emotional responses. I think the movement could be damped down a bit, or perhaps scaled, as it is now, there's not much of a change in dynamics ... make it a bit more subtle it's unclear how the motion coressponds to the sleep debt clock. Whoa. Really messed up. Makes me care about the poor ragdoll. I like the idea of the "sleep debt" clock but I'm not sure how this is correlated to the movement of the ragdoll. "cause obviously, things were exploding" Agree that emotional message isn't very clear. Because the blood and physics cross the line so deeply it becomes funny, actually. Not sure if that's what you were going for. I was not uncomfortable, personally. Still awesome though, you put a lot into this. Too much? Cool project. is there any correlation b/w the data and the animation? #confused ^I believe that bigger toss + turn tracked during sleep = bigger stimulus to the ragdoll model. "You don't need fucking bloodsplatters, you don't need the walls to bleed!" <-- this. Very nice graphics! It turned out quite nice, much better than before for sure! I guess my comments about color weren't really relevent afterall (except the blood splatters). The clock is a nice touch and the music adds a nice ominous atmosphere. In a way it becomes a performance as well. Just to add to the surreality of the effect (which is beautiful) I wonder if the clock should run backward and maybe suggest that your present or future is being ut on hold, otherwise perhaps you dont need the counter. Amazing effect overall. The accleration graphs get lost in the darkness of the room for the most part; there's almost no point to it. What is the sleep debt number? How is that calculated? The visual effects are cool, but it's all about the movement and sometimes the movement of the guy gets lost in the shadows and distortion. It would be worth toning down the visual aspect if it makes the movement more obvious. Very cool: you're able to evoke feelings associated sleep deprivation : slightly graphic though . i think its a really interesting way of visualizing the data: its really engaging. very dramatic and interesting. AH BLOOD yikes I wonder if you could show the seperate of days more? I am not getting exactly what 'sleep debt' means could be nice if the graph images 'lined' up with the movement of the doll... as in spanned across the whole bottom and you could read when in the graph the doll is does the brightness of the room relate to the time of day? Nice graphics! Very interesting way to visualize your data. It makes me reconsider my sleeping pattrens. It's really fun to watch, but I'm not entirely sure what's going on. Does the scene become more surreal as the sleep debt increases, is that why it becomes stretched? What triggers the blood spatter? One radically different approach would be to put the data in a larger context. For example: place the sleep debt in terms of hours of life of fruit flies or something, or compare the acceleration data to something like acceleration data from a roller coaster. That's maybe less entertaining, but you mentioned that the visualization didn't really convey any meaning, or at least not in the way you wanted, so that might be one way to do it. --Nice choice with the colors in the end. Reminisent of old disney style or "the odd world" short film. --Missing one small step of explaining WHY there is so much movement and violence. Reminds me of a possibly a smaller conciousness. Like a look into your head or something. --Room for abiguity. Like how painters don't often know why they are painting everything they paint. This is such a weird game/visualizations that its probably best not to try and explain critique/purpose you wanted. Very nice, I like the addition of the giant clock to show time! However, the clock handles are really the whitest thing in the room at any point of time (even during the day, and especially after the lamp gets knocked over, so they are a bit visually distracting from the much more interesting figure animation. But this is still really freaking cool, and the ROOM DISTORTS. nice. think brighter. it's really fun to watch, i like the music too, it might be cool if the dude was wearing pjs **agreed. awesome music. ** I second that! physical abuse is almost disturbing, but good metaphor for "sleep debt". ** Yeah, that looks like a horror movie The video is very compelling. You achieved a very succesful aesthetic. The connection to the data is not totally apparent but I don't really care. Cool project! **yeah, the visual is just entertaining. Beautiful video. I wasn't sure how it exactly relates to the data you collected.. the more debt you have, the crazier things go? Oh. you explained it just now. But it is not clear from the video. Still, this video will probably stay in my head. powerpoint typo "performant" instead of "performance" Maybe add a bit of text either before or after the video to explain the data and how this is visualizing it?