Data becomes quilt: Encoding meaning through social semiotics

Abstract

There are accepted academic traditions about how data is visually represented, most often in the form of graphs, tables and maps. To visually represent the findings of a study about quilt makers in New Zealand and be congruent with the research topic, the researcher made a quilt to represent the findings. While much of the existing research about quilts focuses on the analysis of meaning, this article is about encoding meaning in a quilt. The article describes the processes of design and making which drew on a diverse range of quilt making traditions and forms of data representation exemplified by the theory of social semiotics. Quilt design decisions were informed by pattern, symbolism and fabric choice and drew on traditions where quilts have been made to convey information such as quilts as signs for escaping slaves on the underground railroad, storytelling tivaevae quilts from the Cook Islands, and the contemporary temperature quilts where daily high and low temperatures are recorded. Data is also communicated in traditional ways such as through graphs made from fabric. This article describes the process of conceptualizing the design and includes photographs of the finished work.