Quarterly Report - Undergrad Thesis

While studying in Australia I took a course in data driven design. Because of the work done in this class I became very interested in what data could look like, and what stories that information could tell. When I was starting my thesis project, I became interested in the idea of Big Data, and what information we, as modern, technology using citizens produce on a day to day basis. In my research I came across the idea of the Quantified Self; a movement that sought to use personally produced data as a type of looking glass to learn more about one’s self. Working with the ideas of the QS movement I decided to sample my own life for three months, using only technology that I already had, to see how complete a picture of what any given day of the week looked like for me, in numbers. My car, my cell phone, my smart watch, my web browsing, my google calendar, etc. these would be the tools by which I would try to figure out what “a day in the life of Steve” looked like. Unlike many others that have collected personal data like this on themselves in the past, I relied only on information I was already generating. I did not use any custom software, or hardware to collect this information, rather, it was all readily available. After all the data had been gathered and sifted through, I made a poster for each day of the week, breaking down the averages of where, how, and on what I spent my time.