Two-part, freshman-year project at CMU.
In the first project, for two weeks, students kept track of our garbage. We catalogued every item we threw out before we trashed it, then presented the results in a poster and essay.
Through the project, I found that a startling amount of my waste was generated through the school's dining system, which uses throwaway containers, napkins and utensils exclusively. I collected my data through Evernote (and later published the notebook).
Thinking about how to present the data, I found a three-way breakdown--how the waste was generated, its material, and its potential impact--most meaningful. I had taken photos of every item I trashed, so I used the sheer volume of each group against the others to visualize the information. Since this was my waste, I wanted my signature to show in the work, so I hand-labelled each group.
For the second project, we were to keep track of our energy and water use for another two-week period. I logged each time I went to the bathroom, washed my hands, charged my phone, etc.; and how long.
Since I did not have physical evidence of this activity to photograph, I went for simple tables and charts. I also wanted to make all the data for both projects evident, so (similar to including the URL to my raw waste data) I included the full text of my log in the finished poster.
