STEAM Zine 2022

Is it possible to be a good data gatherer of your own moods? Over the course of four months, I tracked my moods meticulously using a mood tracking app in response to a mental health diagnosis. Later in the year, I analyzed the data set as a whole, reviewing every date, location, type of mood, medication, and significant event. 

Walking through around 1,400 data points was surprisingly emotional. Visiting those difficult days, one by one, brought everything back. The data was me, laid bare: my actions, my feelings, my experiences. The data was both concrete and undeniable, blurry and open to interpretation. 

But what to do with my memories of this time and how they overwrite the data with their own versions of the truth. Taking pen to paper helped me see the data in a different way, a way that brought forth beauty. Is it possible to be a good data gatherer of your own moods? 

Inspired by the art of Giorgia Lupi, information designer and artist advocating for data humanism.

About the Artist:

Lisa Gayhart is a multimedia designer and artist living and working in New York City. In her work, Gayhart explores memory, place, and silence–often in the content of mental health–and how these concepts work together (or don’t) to create our present day selves. In addition to 14 years of digital design experience, Gayhart is self taught in textile mediums including weaving and embroidery. Use of color to represent emotion, stark contrasts, and spare ornamentation are ongoing elements in both her design and art.