The IU Center for Cultural Affairs’ Arts, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Lab is hosting a data visualization competition for IU students from Oct. 16 to Nov. 17 with a reward up to $2,500.
The competition is part of the AEI Lab’s collaboration with Creatives Rebuild New York, an organization running a guaranteed income program providing 2,400 artists across New York state with $1,000 every month for 18 months. The lab is one of the evaluators of the initiative.
“For part of the evaluation project, we decided to see what we could learn about these artists who applied to the guaranteed income program,” Joanna Woronkowicz, AEI Lab co-director, said.
To evaluate the program and determine the effect of guaranteed income on artists’ economic situation and artwork, the lab is looking at data on work and life circumstances from the approximately 23,000 artists who applied.
One way they are collecting data is through an online email survey, starting in November, addressed to artists who applied for the program. The lab will collect data from the applicants the week before they receive their last check and three months later. From there, they will make comparisons across time and between groups.
Woronkowicz and fellow AEI Lab co-director Doug Noonan, however, also wanted to provide the data to IU students to see what trends they could identify. The data visualization competition, featuring students from across disciplines, has more than 200 student applicants, Woronkowicz said.
“We didn’t put any limitations on it because we want to see what the students come up with themselves,” Woronkowicz said. “The cool thing about this project is that students can work in teams, so we’re hoping that gives us a few teams where there are people coming from various different programs and they can support each other in that way.”
Daniela Castellanos Herrera, a graduate student focusing on sustainability and sustainable development in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, is participating in the contest without a team to develop her data analysis abilities, which she said will put her ahead when looking for a career.
“When you show to your employer that you have this set of skills, you’re going to be putting yourself up in the list of applicants for that job,” Castellanos Herrera said.
Castellanos Herrera plans to translate the raw data into an interactive dashboard that allows viewers to navigate different characteristics, such as first language and geographic location, using Excel.
“I’m a graphic person, so I’m trying to convey information through graphics,” Castellanos Herrera said. “I think that’s a really cool way to let people understand what’s going on because sometimes data is so hard to read in a table or in a paper or in a document, so if you try to show in a different way, in an interactive or dynamic way, people might be able to understand better what you’re trying to convey.”
Woronkowicz and Noonan said the completed visualizations will give artists a chance to advocate for their field.
“A visualization competition like this is going to be giving tools, giving ammunition to this community, and they’re going to use it,” Noonan said. “They’re going to use these things to help advocate and make their case better and also, hopefully, better understand the populations they’re going to work for and work with.”
Because data on artists can be difficult to track, Noonan said that results of their research and what students produce could result in change.
“This contest is an opportunity to work on a thing that has real meaty substance that policymakers, not just in New York but around the country, around the world, are going to care about to get better insights into this population,” Noonan said.
The contest winners will be announced in the first week of December, and their work will be shared on the Center for Cultural Affairs website.
