My name is Sara, welcome to my (first ever!) data visualization/creative coding project, “Piranesi, The Man of The House" 🏛

In the beginning of 2023, I read a book called Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. Telling the story of a man occupying a secluded but giant fortress (more labyrinth than castle), surrounded by nothing but waves and the sky. Piranesi is the name the man answers to. ⛅

This visualization maps the frequency of Piranesi’s name being mentioned in the novel, featuring some bite-sized quotes. I won’t say much more, except that you should read this book if you haven’t (and then you can come back to this page with fresher eyes).

Project timeline:

1. Week 2-4 July: Idea Formation & Data Gathering 🧠
   Kicking off the project by going through bouts of brainstorming and (really bad) sketching in my notebook, and gathering data from the novel.


2. Week 4 July-Week 3 August: Skill, Skill, Skill 🗡
   I spent this long period submerging myself into The Data Garden Project’s YouTube courses and online workshops, and other very helpful tutorials, to implement into my project’s vision. A short checklist of what I've learned and used in this project: basic shapes (module 1), adding text (module 2), functions (module 3), inserting data into Processing (module 4), drawing shapes with data (module 5), & HTML, CSS, and GitHub (module 6).


3. Week 3 August: Check In 📫
   First check-in with The Data Garden Project team! Everyone’s projects are so exciting, and seeing them motivated me more to keep improving mine.


4. Week 3 August-Week 2 September: Building + Designing 🖍
   Importing my data into Processing and begin to build and decorate Piranesi’s not-so-humble abode.


5. Week 2 September-Week 1 October: Refine + Review 💎
   1 word: Troubleshooting. (Or is it 2 words?)


6. Week 1 October: Final Touches 🧤
   Creative coding is a journey of creation, iteration, and iteration, and iteration again. So it’s wonderful to be here, in the final stretch, where everything comes together!

Other notable inspirations:

• The Great Wave off Kanagawa (print by Katsushika Hokusai)
• Labyrinths in Greek mythology
• The works of 18th century Italian archaeologist and architect, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, the novel's namesake
• Ancient Greek and Roman architecture

I am always drawn to discover new methods of narrative expression and appreciation of art, so this has been a wonderful project to dive into (pun intended). Thank you for being here! 🌻

🔗 P.S. You can find me here!