In Conversation

2018 | Poster design, including data collection, data analysis, sketches, and illustrations by Bridgette Silva

The conversations between a mother (mama), a best friend (Amiga), and a significant other (Querido) on the same day at different times is represented within this data.

The mapping of the data above derives from the concept of collecting and tracking the “invincible”. 

Through a series of brainstorming, I landed on the idea of collecting data from several over-the-phone conversations with my mom, best friend, and significant other. The data collected would track the movement of conversations through static diagrams of heartbeat and sound waves.

Building Parameters

During the process of creating this design I built parameters that allowed me to work in a constructive manner. All three types of data will be recorded on a micro-scale such as:

  • Heartbeat

  • Sound wave

  • Mood

Tools

  • Apple watch

  • Voice Recorder

  • Heart Analyzer App

  • Adobe Audition

Soundwave

The audio was recorded to collect the sound wave produced on my end of the conversation.

The audio was recorded through the voice memo app on the iphone. The audio file was uploaded to Adobe Audition, a digital audio workstation, to view a clear sound wave.

Heartbeat Rate

The heart rate analyzer app along with the Apple watch was used to accurately record my heartbeat during each conversation.

Analyzing Data

Mom - Mama:

Date: 2.4

Time: 7:28AM

Conversation Length: 1hr 29min

Relationship: Mama aka Ma’

Emotions: Anger, Misunderstood, LOVED, entertained

Topic of conversation: Talking about 2 am messages, femininity , tif's with siblings, facetiming her and showing her my room, conversing about kids/ big families.

Multi-tasking: During the conversation, we were both getting ready for the day and doing our morning routines. We talked all the way through till I had to head to my first appointment of the day.

Notes: I hadn’t been so proactive with communicating with my mom, but this conversation allowed me to fully immerse myself and touch on different talking points. Parts of the conversation became heated with frustration, especially during points of poor cell service or language barriers.

Sound wave:

Heart Rate:

Best Friend - Amiga

Date: 2:4

Time: 8:08PM

Conversation Length: 40min 39sec

Relationship: Best Friend

Emotions: Excited, Motivated, Releasing frustration, Happy

Topic of conversation: In-progress projects, friends, giving advice on tricky situations.

Multi-tasking: After calling each other over an audio only message, we decided to facetime to show each other the sketches we were working on. Realized the conversation with Riya was very active due to the digital “face-to-face” call.

Notes: Riya and I had called each other for 10min earlier in the day and set up a call at 8pm.

Soundwave:

Heart Rate:

S/O - Querido

Date: 2:4

Time: 11:07PM

Conversation Length: 45min 14sec

Relationship: Beautiful human I was getting to know at the time.

Emotions: Calm, Understanding, Excited, Hopeful.

Topic of conversation: Talking about entrepreneur work goals, setting up work dates to be productive together, high school shenanigans, creating music and art.

Multi-tasking: Cleaning my up my space from eraser marks, realizing that I’m creating noise on my end, so being more adamant about being present and in the moment. Then realizing that, I should not mess with the data, whatever sound waves the recording picks up, is what it picks up.

Notes: While getting to know this person, we began nightly calls, most calls were recaps of the day. On this certain day, there was a lot of talk about new. opportunities.

Soundwave:

Heart Rate:

Sound wave Illustrations

Mom - Mama:

Best Friend - Amiga:

S/O - Querido:

Heart Rate Illustrations

Mom - (Mama)

Starting Heart Rate: 75

S/O - (Querido)

Starting Heart Rate: 87

Riya - (Amiga)

Starting Heart Rate: 73

Composition

During the process of recording all 3 bits of information. I began to curate different compositions that seamlessly displayed the information in a way that the audience/viewer can understand.

Iteration 1

Final Iteration

Overall Findings:

After analyzing the data, it was clear that every conversation displays my level of comfortability with each person. Although, I initially believed that my conversation with my best friend (Amiga) would have been longer than the conversation with my mom (Mama), I was surprised to see that I had so much to discuss with my mom. The comparison between my best friend and the significant other (Querido) at the time was easier to compare due to the similar length of time. The digram shows the constant dialogue with my best friend compared to the conversation with the significant other which was more interactive on his end. The newer the relationship the less I engage in talking, but focus more on listening to get to know the person.

In conclusion, my findings prove that the longer the relationship, the more intimate, interactive, and complex the conversation.

To record mood, there are three colors that visually represent three different emotions: excitement, frustration, and calm/ neutral state.

Each diagram is a separate conversation that displays the sound wave and a ripple into the heartbeat. Although, the X axis displays length of time, to visually represent the length of time the Y axis to each diagram is in proportion to the length of time for each conversation.

The length of the conversation led to various dips and rises in my emotions/ heart beat due to the intimate topics that were being discussed.