Breathing in Clay

I visualized my breathing. I took a piece of clay and spread it out. And for each breath, I would press a stroke with my finger into the clay. And after a minute, I would have a visual peace, a visualization of my breathing. My very humanness pressed into form. I could go ahead and fire it and glaze it and hang it on the wall.

To me, what this data art stands for is…awareness. When we create a visualization, a graph, a chart, data art we make invisible things visible. And by breathing into the clay with my finger, I have not only created a “chart”, but actually also data about myself. Which in return informs me about myself. It’s recorded feedback. It gives me meaning about myself. I guess this is what Giorgia Lupi calls Data Humanism.

Is there a takeaway gained by looking at this data art? Not really. But there is a great takeaway to be gained by FEELING the data yourself, taking a medium and imprinting your being alive in it. I can highly recommend to grab whatever you have available – clay, paint, stones, leaves, Legos, strings – and let your body become the SEISMOGRAPH for what you feel and experience.