Report: Universty of Alberta Library Staff Knitting the Curve of COVID-19 Cases across Canada

From Global News:

University of Alberta library staff have been tracking COVID-19 cases with yarn.The group is “stitching the curve” to capture a unique moment in history. A colleague created a data spreadsheet for the group to work off of and are each assigned to track a province or territory.

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Darker colours represent fewer cases, the lightest colour on the pattern corresponds to one hundred cases and above and Hailey Siracky is knitting Alberta’s curve.

“It’s easy to get a sense of how the curve is working based on the colours we are all seeing in the knitting, even though we are all working with different colours,” Siracky said.

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See Also: Stitching the Curve: A UAlberta Library Data-driven Making Project (via U. of Alberta Libraries; April 23, 2020)

This project is modelled after many similar types of projects, such as scarves made from German train data or shawls that represent Montreal city council speaking time by gender. Data Physicalization is a trend where real-world data is translated into material objects. The intent of this process is to highlight information in unique ways, engage with data in a more hands-on fashion and, in some cases, produce a final object that serves as a representation of a particular social issue.

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Filed under: Data Files, Libraries, News