D

Data Visualization As an Act of Witnessing

Wall map depicting toe tags of migrants where remains were found
Close up of toe tags from Penn Museum Exhibit
HT94 Prototype Exhibition at the Penn Museum — Photo credit: Maria Murad.
Detail, close up image of toe tag wall
Detail of Toe Tag Wall (Phillips Museum of Art, Franklin & Marshall College). Source: Undocumented Migration Project.
Black and white image of a person next to a sketch of a toe tag wall exhibit to show scale
Photo Courtesy of the Undocumented Migration Project and Jason De Leon. Scale drawing of installation. The small triangles on this grid would be replaced with hanging manila and orange toe-tags.
White wall of grids identifying toe tag placement
Photo Courtesy of the Undocumented Migration project and Jason De Leon via Instagram. Exhibit under construction at the AD&A Museum and the History of Art & Architecture at UC Santa Barbara — Source: Undocumented Migration Project.
Two people place toe tags on the exhibit wall grid
Volunteers Installing the Wall at the Phillips Museum of Art, Franklin & Marshall College — Source: Undocumented Migration Project.
Individual toe tag with a quote from a volunteer
Photo Courtesy of the Undocumented Migration Project and Jason De Leon via Instagram.


For 20 years, Mary Aviles has stewarded projects driving strategy and content, human experience, concept development, and systems change. A graduate of the University of Michigan, her work has spanned the business-to-business, health care, and nonprofit sectors. Mary is a mixed-method UX researcher at Detroit Labs and the managing editor of Nightingale. She writes about dataviz in real life (IRL) in an effort to help practitioners and “non-data” people enjoy better understanding and experiences in their shared ecosystems.

CategoriesData Art