Representing the Self Through the Visualization of Personal Data
The representation of identity in digital media does not necessarily have to be conceived on the basis of criteria that mimic physical reality. This article presents a model for representing individual identity, based on the recording of human experience in the form of personal data, as an alternative to the common forms of mimetic portraiture. As such, the authors developed the project Data Self-Portrait that aims to explore the creative possibilities associated with the concept of data portrait. It can be described as a means of representing and expressing identity through the application of data visualization techniques to the domain of portraiture, according to an exploratory design approach, based on visualizing the digital footprint. It thus seeks to develop design proposals for representing identity that respond to the growing dematerialization of human activities and explores the representational and expressive role of data visualization, according to a creative use of computational technologies.