Stitching meaning: practices of data textile creators

A stitched-looking border surrounds the whole image. On the left, labeled "The Work", we visually represent encodings. For a typical temperature blanket, each row represents a day where position represents the date and color represents the temperature. Images of different colored skeins of yarn are included to illustrate the color portion of this. In the center, a typical temperature blanket is shown. A rainbow-colored knit blanket is shown, with a label of WP25 (a classification used in the paper). In single-row stripes, colors shift from blues to yellows to reds and pinks, and finally back to greens and blues, from left to right. On the right side of the image, visual labels capture two other features of the paper, "The Data" and "The Creator", which have subcategories of Domain, Scope, and Collection,  and Motivations, Challenges, Lessons, and Insights, respectively.
Through surveys, we collected a corpus of data textiles and information on their creation. We analyzed the corpus from three perspectives: the work itself and the ways it visually encodes data, the creator’s process and experience, and the data content. An example of a prototypical temperature blanket is shown in the center.
Abstract
Tens of thousands of people have represented data by creating data-encoding textile pieces like blankets, scarves, and more. A prototypical example is the temperature blanket, which represents the weather through rows or blocks of different colors mapped to temperature ranges. While researchers have used fiber arts mediums to create exploratory projects, data visualization and physicalization research has largely not engaged with examples from this enormous and diverse community. We explore the space of data textiles, or fiber arts that encode information, by surveying creators (i.e., data fiber artists) on their projects and processes. We create a corpus of 159 examples of data textiles and present a schema characterizing the data encoding methods used in these projects. We also gather insights into creators’ data workflows as well as their motives and discoveries through making with their data. Creators of data textiles use distinct processes to map their data, building fabric from component structures and substructures while using material properties like color and texture. From diverse data-tracking procedures, creators use and relate to data in varied ways. Working on these pieces also contributes to the creators’ personal growth and data understanding. Our findings point to new opportunities for visualization, including opportunities to support fiber artists with tools formatted to their needs and opportunities to incorporate concepts from data textiles into other types of visualization (e.g., using texture, structural layouts, colorways).
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Stitching meaning: practices of data textile creators

Sydney Purdue, Eduardo Puerta, Enrico Bertini, and Melanie Tory. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics—VIS/TVCG. 2025.

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