Data physicalisation “examines how computer-supported, physical representations of data (i.e., physicalizations), can support cognition, communication, learning, problem solving, and decision making.” (Jansen et al. 2015, 8) The translation of data into a tangible output carries many potentialities and challenges, some of which I explore in my research-creation practice. Soft data celebration (2025) is a data physicalisation I created from data published by the Montreal Contemporary Art Museum (MAC) about its collection. Plushy pompoms represent artworks with color encoding the origins of the artists. The scale from pastels to bright and scintillating colors provides a soothing environment while accentuating less prevalent occurrences. The pompoms are assembled into garlands representing yearly acquisitions by the museum. In the installation, they dangle from a circular mobile hung atop a fluffy carpet.

For this presentation, I will reflect on the experiences of making, sharing and documenting Soft data celebration, a case study in my research on GLAM+ data physicalisation. I begin by recounting the makings of the project. In the open data about the artists in the museum's collection, I aimed to critically engage with the “nationality” property. I decided, then, to loosen the nationalistic constraint to recognise both indigenous and québecois identities. While it is common for many individuals to have multiple origins, their representation is often treated as a visualisation “issue”. The material approach, translating visualisation into physicalisation, creates space to add as many pompoms as necessary to embrace the artists' diversity. This tactile entry point also enabled broader access both to the data and to the MAC collection. Engaging with soft and plushy data allows for new potentialities. In this tangible environment, change is a simple repair made by cutting the thread and tying new knots. Serendipity also enriched the project: the garlands of feather-light pompoms bent the PEX structure of the mobile, forming an unexpectedly “physical data-driven” Bézier curve.

Soft Data Celebration is a case study in my doctoral research at the crossroads of textility and algorithmics. My approach is founded in thinking of craft as technology and of technology as craft in order to highlight the fabrication process of digital work as well as the technicity of hand-crafted artifacts. My practice-based research (pratique de recherche-création) emphasizes the steps of sharing and documenting the work. I will therefore present two demos of the project (2025, 2026) as well as the joys and challenges I encountered in creating documentation for this project. Participatory photographic documentation, sensory audiodescription, open-source code, and zine production: these endeavors archive the different narratives and experiences that the installation embraces.They also weave the creation process into the academic research, contributing to the many shapes of this data-driven project.

The references and a photograph are available in the attachted PDF and the web version: lenamk.site/soft-data-celebration/CSDH-2026

This paper examines how experiential knowledge translates across menstrual tracking devices, including pen and paper, a handmade Python digital tracker, and a product from the FemTech market, Flo Health (the most downloaded cycle tracker on the App Store). I utilize autoethnographic comparative study to examine the process of menstrual tracking. By presenting this comparison, I hope to elucidate how menstrual experiences and knowledge is impacted by form, and how that knowledge may be mis-translated from a physical to a digital environment.

Cycle tracking is a topic of discussion and research that often centers around the possible associated privacy risks. This can be a product of surveillance capitalism, in which these apps take personal health data that they in turn “collect, analyse, and s[ell]” (Felsberger, 2025). Similarly, activists and menstruators at large are cautioning that menstrual data has the potential to be used to implicate abortion seekers or those who have miscarriages in regions in which reproductive healthcare is criminalized (Cao et al., 2024). In the context of contemporary political instability in the states and the continuation of legislation that criminalizes reproductive healthcare, these issues are only becoming more pressing for menstruators.

In the presence of these issues, I argue the merits of do-it-yourself femtech, or the use of digital skills to personalize one’s own sexual and reproductive health tracking. Democratization of basic computer programming skills offers menstruators privacy and personalization. A comparison of experience with paper tracking, DIY digital tracking, and for profit femtech assisted tracking will make clear how menstrual experiences are (mis)translated across different mediums. This paper aims to establish a basis for democratized and DIY menstrual tracking, empowering menstruators to regain autonomy and control over our personal health data.

References

Cao, J., Laabadli, H., Mathis, C. H., Stern, R. D., & Emami-Naeini, P. (2024). “I Deleted It After the Overturn of Roe v. Wade”: Understanding Women’s Privacy Concerns Toward Period-Tracking Apps in the Post Roe v. Wade Era. Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642042

Clark, M., & Southerton, C. (2024). Understanding digital period pedagogies: Exploring how young people navigate menstruation through embodied experience. Health Education Journal, 83(4), 359–370. https://doi.org/10.1177/00178969241234507

Felsberger, S. (2025, June). The High Stakes of Tracking Menstruation. https://www.mctd.ac.uk/femtech-high-stakes-tracking-menstruation/