Dear Data - by Giorgia Lupi & Stefanie Posavec (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Equal parts mail art, data visualization, and affectionate correspondence, Dear Data celebrates "the infinitesimal, incomplete, imperfect, yet exquisitely human details of life," in the words of Maria Popova (Brain Pickings), who introduces this charming and graphically powerful book. For one year, Giorgia Lupi, an Italian living in New York, and Stefanie Posavec, an American in London, mapped the particulars of their daily lives as a series of hand-drawn postcards they exchanged via mail weekly--small portraits as full of emotion as they are data, both mundane and magical. Dear Data reproduces in pinpoint detail the full year's set of cards, front and back, providing a remarkable portrait of two artists connected by their attention to the details of their lives--including complaints, distractions, phone addictions, physical contact, and desires. These details illuminate the lives of two remarkable young women and also inspire us to map our own lives, including specific suggestions on what data to draw and how. A captivating and unique book for designers, artists, correspondents, friends, and lovers everywhere.

Review Quotes

"...a remarkable visual snapshot of the lives of two bright women corresponding with each other in innovative ways and will appeal to designers and best friends alike...With each pair of postcards presented side by side, readers immediately experience Lupi and Posavec's different styles and sensibilities and witness how they influence and complement each other over the course of this year." - Publishers Weekly

"Dear Data is a revelation of the human face of data." - Quartz

"Experiencing the project anew, in this beautiful analog form, only amplifies its deeply humane ethos of reclaiming the living texture of "data" in our everyday lives from the word's unfeeling, algorithmic, non-human connotations." - Brain Pickings

"Lupi and Posavec's approach teaches mental and emotional attentiveness. Their examples inspire you to think creatively about your personal habits, and to approach them with a slowness that lets you reflect on their meaning." - Quartz

About the Author

Giorgia Lupi is an award winning information designer. She co-founded Accurat, a data-driven design firm with offices in Milan and New York where she is the design director. She received her M-Arch at FAF in Ferrara, Italy, and earned a PhD in Design at Politecnico di Milano. She relocated from Italy to New York City, where she now lives.

Stefanie Posavec is a data designer whose work focuses on non-traditional representations of data derived from language, literature or scientific topics. Often using a hand-crafted approach, her work has been exhibited at, among others, MoMA in New York, CCBB in Rio de Janerio, the Science Gallery in Dublin and the V&A in London. In 2013 she was Facebook's first data-artist-in-residence at their Menlo Park campus.