PORTFOLIO

Linear data representations are more common than polar graphs, for good reasons. It's way easier to compare the deltas of outliers and see trends unfold. Because were from left to right (in some languages from right to left) a cartesian representation of values is more intuitive while a polar representation requires the onlooker to make an additional step of mental decoding. However a dataset, that descibes natural cyclic activity, a polar representation might grant the onlooker with new perspective and a new mental model. One such example is meterological data visualised in one-year intervals. A year is a cyclic process made up of recurring sub-cyles.

Days and months (in a lunisolar calendar system). The gregorian calendar is a solar calendar: it lines up the dates and seasons to the earths position relative to the sun. However the gregorian calendar is not lunisolar, as it doesn't take the moon cyvcles into account. Because a purely lunar calendar quickly drifts against the seasons, in lunisolar calendars (for example the Hebrew or Chinese calendar), an additional month is added every few years in order to mitigate the seasonal shift) In this project a visualisation was created that emphasises on the cyclic nature of movement in the universe and create an alternative mental modeloftime. Also every year,month and day is different and leaves it's unique mark like age rings in a tree.

The resulting visualisations show temperature and global radiation (intensity of sun rays hitting the earth's surface at the measuring station). The data was provided by the solar institute in Jülich and visualised.