Maria Teresa Ortoleva is a PhD student in the Human-Centred Computing research group at King's College London (maria-teresa.ortoleva@kcl.ac.uk)

Project title: Mindscapes: Exploring the Physicalization and Spatialization of Data for Mental Wellbeing

Supervisors: Dr. Alfie Abdul-Rahman and Dr. Rita Borgo

Our PhD project approaches research in data physicalization with a background as a sculpture and installation artist. Data physicalization is a recent research area concerned with physical manifestations of data, from common objects to art displays and hands-on workshop experiences. Their physical and material properties have strong perceptual, cognitive, reflective, and emotional value, with the ability to engage a public of any level of data literacy. In this research project, we propose to explore two interconnected opportunities for data physicalization that are currently underexplored. First, the need to leverage their documented reflectiveness to examine an application of personal data sculptures to mental wellbeing. Second, the need to advance the design of data physicalizations by considering their inherent use of space as a further opportunity to encode information. Conceiving them as data spatializations, we aim to examine the perceptual, cognitive, reflective, and behavioral opportunities of encountering mental well-being data as a physical immersive mindscape.

To find out more about our project, chat about anything data physicalization or explore opportunities for collaboration, please come in touch at maria-teresa.ortoleva@kcl.ac.uk!