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When looking back at this semester, I’m really glad I chose to take this DTC 101 course as one of my electives! It gave me a new perspective on technology and made me think about its relationship to the Earth in a way I never had before.

I took DTC 201 last semester, but it didn’t challenge me to think hard about what digital technology and culture actually means. The unit on curation is what really gave me a new perspective on how technology is incorporated into our culture. Everything we do on social media is curation. Instagram is my favorite social media platform, and it was cool to think about how my Instagram is a curation of my life. Every photo I post tells a little story about who I am (depending on how in depth you look at it or think about it). There are so many things on the internet that are collections and stories about different people based on the information they post. People curate their lives through social media on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, VSCO and so many other platforms.

Another thing this class made me realize about the relationship between digital technology and culture is that of transportation. So many of our CTP’s focused on new forms of technology. The things we place a lot of emphasis on in society today, such as cell phones, the necessity of music while traveling, and communication through digital channels are all things that are continuing to be incorporated in new ways into our cars. If it’s not self-driving cars, it’s bullet trains or some other type of advanced technological transportation!

One thing I really enjoyed about this class was that we had project instead of exams. Because DTC classes aren’t like the more traditional ones, I think this is very appropriate. I would much rather come up with a creative project that relates to the learning goals rather than study information and answer questions on an exam. If I were to change one thing about this class, it would probably be the readings. I didn’t mind some of the shorter ones at all, but the longer ones were often very lengthy for just a 101 course and then to have only a short class discussion on them. I think one thing to try would be having students watch videos outside of class that cover the same things rather than readings. I like to be able to sit and listen to something rather than to sit down for an hour and try to concentrate reading something I know will only be briefly talked about. Other than that I thought this class was great! I loved the group project at the end, and I enjoyed that we got to have group discussions all throughout the semester. Thanks for a great DTC 101 experience, I will definitely recommend this class as an elective to my friends!

When thinking of an example of how culture affects design, the first thing that came to my mind was the SPARK building built here at WSU. The culture here at WSU is pretty much built into this building in every way. One example is that the Cougar Fight Song sound waves serve as wall art/design throughout the building. The fight song is something that brings Cougs together, no matter how long ago they graduated from WSU. It is a big part of our culture that they decided to incorporate into the building. Another thing that comes to mind is the Starbucks downstairs. College students run on caffeine, so it made complete sense for the culture of this to be built into the design of the building. One last thing about the SPARK building is the group study rooms that are in the building. A lot of the curriculum at WSU involves group projects,  so because of this there were many group study rooms put in this building. It gives students a chance to really utilize these spaces and make the most out of their group work!

An example that I thought of where design affects culture is cars, and the way that they are evolving. You could also say that culture affects design here, but I think you can look at it the other way as well. Automotive designers choose the most important parts of our culture to incorporate into cars, but how we use these things design choices affects our culture. One example that is up and coming are automated cars. This design decision could drastically change our culture. If cars were completely able to run on their own without any human instruction, our culture would be highly affected. We watched a CTP in class about having automated semi trucks which would be a big design hit to the culture of truck driving. Another thing would be the issue and culture regarding drinking and driving. Maybe people would be able to go out drinking with their friends and not worry about having to have a designated driver because cars could completely run themselves. All of these automotive car design choices could have major effects on our culture.

When I created this blog for my DTC 201 profile, I put a lot of thought and intent behind my design choices. Because of this, I didn’t make many changes because I’m really happy with the way it looks!

For contrast, I chose to make my font the same burgundy color as the background behind my artwork so it would stand out. I did this to make navigation easier. I wanted visitors on my blog to be able to find tabs easily and click on what they are looking for right away. I also made my projects appear very large because this is a visual portfolio of my artwork. I chose a white textured background for the side banner of my blog so that the headings would stand out. Again, my goal for this was to make navigation of my blog easier for my visitors.

As for repetition, I have a lot of it on the home page of my blog. On this page I have options to visit the page that tells the reader more about me, or a tab that takes them to my projects with an image of my first project underneath. I thought these were the two most important parts of my blog, so I highlighted them on my home page as well as including them on the side navigation tab.

For alignment, everything is pushed to the left side of the screen. The only things that are centered are my projects. None of this was intentional, I just went with the layout that was provided for me! When we were creating these blogs in class last semester, we learned that there were a lot of restrictions on what you can do to the design layouts provided to you by Crimson Pages. I think it would be fun to learn how to edit the web page myself and adjust the alignment.

Another thing I didn’t have a lot of control of on this layout is proximity. One of the only relevant things I can think of on my post when it comes to proximity is the captions that are underneath my projects. They are directly underneath so you don’t have to click on my projects to see them, you don’t have to dig and search for more information. One other thing that comes to mind is the proximity of my projects. I included them all on one page, so they are automatically grouped together. Again, I believe this makes navigation much easier which was the overall goal for my blog!

I have never used the C.R.A.P. technique to evaluate something of mine that is artistic, but I think it’s interesting to critique myself this way!

Looking at the relationship between these statistics and my own internal memories of the last two weeks, I am not too surprised by what I see. I think one thing that is funny is that the two days where I watched the most content and used the most battery percentage were Sundays, which are my laziest days of the week. I can definitely remember having movie days ALL day on both those Sundays! Some things I didn’t expect were how the rest of the weeks were organized pretty randomly for the most part. I thought the first week I recorded data would have much bigger numbers because I didn’t have many assignments due and wasn’t very busy. The second week I was recording data was much busier for me, but you can’t really tell that from my data! I guess that I am always able to make time to watch content online, not that this is always a good thing because it makes me procrastinate more than I should!!

I am confident in saying what I think this data means. I believe it shows me what days I had the most free time (or possibly procrastinated the most). By showing me how much battery percentage I used while streaming this content, it makes me realize how much energy I actually use in a day. I think it’s good to be aware of this, because we have to charge our devices to have this much power and to actually use the energy. From the reading, “Artist Turns a Year’s Worth of Tracking Data Into a Haunting Record,” the author says, “…data can give us entirely new ways to look at our lives.” I believe this is absolutely true, every little thing we do can be tracked and turned into data. When we analyze this information, we can find patterns, numbers, and trends in our lives that we might not otherwise see. I think there is relatively little that data could not tell us about our lives. If I were to continue tracking this data for the rest of the year, or for the next couple years, I think I could learn a lot about how I stream content and when this occurs.  Also, if I were to do this again I would definitely keep a much more detailed track of my data, such as including which device I was streaming on, which app I was watching content on, and the time of day that I was watching. This would give me an even more in depth visual story.

I wanted to make my infographic easy to read and understand, so I went for simplicity. I used the colors red, white and blue for my visual in honor of the Olympics which I have been watching a lot this week! I really liked the donut pie chart visual to show the number of minutes of content watched and battery percentage used while doing so. I used the website RawGraphics to make this graphic. I was able to include the date under each circle too which was able to help show which date and day of the week I watched the most or the least content. I think it’s very aesthetically pleasing how the circles get bigger and smaller depending on how much content I watched. I created all other elements besides my graph on the website Piktochart. It was really easy to use, and helped me simplify my visual. I think the key is a big part in telling the story of my data. I liked the simple little symbols that were available, I believe it really conveyed the different elements of my data well. I felt the font I chose fit well with the colors I used, it’s not too harsh but is unique enough to stand out. Overall, although my visual and my story is pretty simple, I think you can learn a lot about my lifestyle from the data and this visualization.

If all of the powers of ten were written out in a sequence on a spreadsheet, I know that my mind would be blown! Knowing how to work with powers of ten in a math problem compared to actually being able to grasp the reality of what it means are two totally different things. I’ve also had a hard time grasping math concepts visually, so this video gave me a new perspective. Actually being able to see what multiple powers of ten look like in real life in the YouTube video greatly helped me grasp an understanding of what powers of ten mean.

What do these three sources have to say about some of the positives, negatives, and challenges of visualizing data?

From the reading “The Trouble with Timelines,” one of the challenges of Priestly’s timelines was that his was hard to understand with how little context there was behind it. One positive about this though was that he set the stage for timelines to come in the future. The idea that time could be shown visually caught on with a lot of people. Because we can’t touch or feel time, a lot of people liked the way something like this could be visualized. The biggest negative from this source was that time was never shown in a visual linear fashion before, and it was almost too simple. Bergson said that Priestly’s timeline was a “deceiving idol.” A negative to Sterne’s timeline was that it became too elaborate and complicated. They didn’t have the means of technology to make it simple and easy to read back then, so scrolls were 54 feet long with lots of information. This wasn’t easy to edit or change either. I think with our advanced technology now, timelines are much more useful and can help us visually grasp time.

As for the reading “The Mapping of Massacres,” one of the positives from this is that it brings awareness to a controversial subject. It shows evidence, and not opinion. When you hear about something you may think, “Oh that’s really sad,” but then the information doesn’t really stick with you. But when you see an actual visualization of something, it resonates much deeper and stays with you. I believe this is the case in this reading, and that there were mostly good things that came out of this visualization.

The quote “Literacy in information analysis requires a willingness to grapple with data in all its untidy forms, including missing, incomplete, and contradictory entries. [This] involves moving through layers of abstraction, using visualization to summarize, and drilling down to the supporting information structures. Good tools…must always include ways to view the underlying assumptions, to visualize and examine alternative interpretations, and to expose the degree of uncertainty,” from Maureen Stone reminds me most of the Powers of Ten YouTube video. When we think about this idea, it is nearly impossible to understand what it means from our standpoint. But when we have a visualization of it, we are more willing to understand what it means and put more effort into analyzing things from this point of view. We can assume what our view would be from 10^7 meters away, but actually being able to see the real view point can broaden our perspectives and help us learn more precisely.

Here are two relevant photos that came up when I searched myself on Google!

I did a little Google searching to see what kinds of information I would find about myself if I typed in my name. I found various results depending on what I typed in.

When I typed in my full name, Olivia Christine Bonsen, I didn’t find a ton of information. Some of the accurate links that came up were my name on the 2016 Fall Honor Roll at WSU and a link to my work’s Facebook page (which is a doggie daycare/hotel). The only relevant photo I found under this search was the cover of a “Winter Sports Preview” page done by the local paper in my hometown, the Lynden Tribune. Clicking on this photo took me to a website that had these brochures from multiple different years. I played basketball in high school and have a cousin with the same last name that is still playing, so I found team images with us in it from a few different years.

When I typed in just “Olivia Bonsen,” I found a lot more interesting things. The first link that came up was the link to my Instagram page. My account is private, so you have to have my permission to follow me before you can see my photos. Therefore, I wasn’t able to view my Instagram page unless I was logged in. The second link that came up was to the MaxPreps website, which had the basketball information and stats from my senior year of high school. It showed all of the scores from the games my team played senior year, which was sort of fun to go back and look at (both good and really bad memories). A lot of the links that showed up went back to articles from the two local papers in my home town, the Lynden Tribune and the Bellingham Herald, which were stories about my high school basketball team. One or two of the articles had my name mentioned in it, but most of them was just my name at the bottom with the box score. This is the main result of the pictures I found as well. My Pinterest account showed up, and so did the obituary for my Grandmother who passed away in 2013. None of this information surprised me, but I found it very interesting!

I was a little more shocked when I visited familytreenow.com. This website had my exact name, middle initial, correct age and year of birth. It also had my current address (with a Google maps view, yikes!) and home phone number. I chose to do the opt out process because it was a little concerning that my address and home phone number was so easily accessible on this website!

Overall, this was an interesting experience. After watching Big Data and learning more about it, it’s crazy to think of all the information we have left on the internet every day that we go on it. There is a trail that leads to you, and all you have to do is a little digging to find what you’re looking for.

To me, digital technology and culture means a couple different things. The first thing I think of when this is mentioned is how society, and the way that we interact with each other, has changed drastically since digital technology has become more prevalent in our lives. For a project in my DTC 201 class, I interviewed my mom and asked her about the ways she used technology growing up in the 70s and 80s. One of the things she said that stuck with me was that her and her sisters played outside almost everyday growing up. Now, kids would rather play a game on their iPad or watch a movie than go outside and play games with their neighbors. We are in an age where people would rather talk to someone on social media than meet up at a coffee shop and get to know them. Although digital technology has changed our culture and the way that we do things dramatically, there are many good things about it that have had positive influences in our lives. Digital technology in the medical field has helped millions of people with different kinds of medical disabilities, diseases and handicaps be able to live their lives with less restrictions. There is no doubt that there will be even more advances in the future, so I think that we have to keep our minds open to all of the possibilities and potential that is out there.

Growing up, I was never surrounded by much technology. My dad graduated high school in 1976 and my mom in 1981. Neither of them experienced much technology in college, and never really felt the need to bring much of it into our home. Even to this day, my dad does not own a cell phone and we do not have a working computer or internet at my house. I’ve had a cell phone since 7th grade and have had a lap top since my senior year in high school, but when I’m home I always go to coffee shops to connect to the internet. I think people from my parents’ generation often look at technology as unreliable, overused, and a bit complicated, but I definitely like to focus on the good things digital technology is doing for our culture. I hope to bring this view of technology into our class and have some good discussion about the good things it is doing for our culture.

From the Drucker and DIKW reading, I completely agree with the DIKW pyramid. It makes a lot of sense to me how Data is at the very bottom of the pyramid. To me, data means information of all kinds. There is an endless amount of data out there in the world, and without understanding that, we wouldn’t be able to obtain the information, process it into knowledge, or think about it until it became wisdom. It’s also crazy to me how much we rely on technology to store and sort our data. Humans don’t have the capacity to process and sort that much information, so this is a good example of how digital technology helps our culture.

Here is the final draft of my audio story for Project #4 for my DTC 201 class! You can also find it under the “Portfolio” section of this website.

The person I chose to interview for this project is my mom. The reason I chose to interview her is because she grew up in the 70s and graduated high school in 1981. The novel Ready Player One focuses a lot on technology and culture from the 1980s, so I figured interviewing my mom would be a great way to learn, first hand, about technology from this time. One thing I made sure to ask her was about video games during this time period. This was because Ready Player One is focused mainly on video game culture in the 80s. I thought it was funny when my mom brought up PacMan, because this game is featured in the novel!

After listening to the StoryCorps projects, I knew I wanted my interview to be personal. This is why I chose to include me asking my mom questions within my audio story. I also kept clips of us talking back and forth, including us sharing laughs a few times. Reading about StoryCorps, I really liked the idea of having something that maybe your great great grand kids could listen to one day, then be able to hear first hand what technology was like back then. It also could let them know what their three times great grandma sounded like, how she laughed, and how she told stories. I know I will definitely be able to save this audio story as a keep sake!

As mentioned above, I chose to interview my mom because the time she grew up fit perfectly with the theme of Ready Player One. Another reason I chose to interview her is because she is my mom, so I’m totally comfortable interviewing her and asking her questions. I thought this would give me a good quality recording, and it ended up working out perfectly. The initial interview was about 15 minutes long, which gave me a lot of content to work with and chose from! We sat in our dining room so it was quiet, and I used a recording app on my phone to record our conversation. This was also a good topic for us to talk about because we had never really had this conversation before.

To record the interview with my mom, I used an app on my iPhone called “VoiceRecorder.” I knew this was a reliable app and that I would be able to transfer the audio to Adobe Audition because I had used it previously for projects in my COM 210 class. The audio probably isn’t the highest quality, compared to if I used a high-tech microphone, but it was convenient and was accessible to me at the time.

I used an upbeat instrumental music tune in the background of my interview. I searched it through CretiveCommons, and downloaded it from SoundCloud. The music is under an Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) license and credit is given to Twisterium. I wanted to add some upbeat music to my story because I thought it made the story more fun to listen to. The music is catchy, so I thought it would make for a more exciting listening experience. Here is the link to the file: https://soundcloud.com/twisterium/romantic-folk-loop-free-instrumental-background-music-creative-commons