“In other words, “Dear Data” paints a human portrait with data. With each graph and information map, we get a deeper sense of the authors’ personalities. What emerges from this information overload is a fascinating catalogue of the complexity of daily living. By tracking such minutiae, Lupi and Posavec, who both work in information design, reveal the patterns that inform our decisions and affect our relationships.”

“Experiencing the project anew, in this beautiful analog form, only amplifies its deeply humane ethos of reclaiming the living texture of “data” in our everyday lives from the word’s unfeeling, algorithmic, non-human connotations. And, indeed, the “data” which Posavec and Lupi record are of the humanist, humanest kind — kindnesses (thanks paid, compliments received, smiles beamed at strangers), grievances (vanities, envies, self-criticisms), creaturely joys and vices (solitude savored, distractions succumbed to, beauty relished).”

“Despite the vast amount of quantification, Dear Data feels almost like an anti-quantified self project. Lupi and Posavec aren’t interested in calories, steps, or heart rate. Their project explores the more slippery details of daily life. This human-centric data is the reason why Dear Data doesn’t read as detached self-analysis. There are insights to be found, even in the categories they chose.”

“Dedicate the time and the information encoded in Lupi and Posavec’s postcards is not only revealing, but poignant. As well as choosing topics around items, such as the contents of their wardrobes or the number of drinks they’d had that week, the pair also scrutinised their behaviour.
Both are mind-boggling intricate. The keys to each chart are minute, cypher-like instructions, peppered with anecdotes and asides.”

“Dear Data is a rich and inspiring teasure-trove of creatively rendereded data, giving visual shape to the more mundane aspects of the two authors’ lives.”

“Reading through Dear Data and pouring over all of the curious and clever charts, graphs, and diagrams they created, you really feel both women making unique discoveries about themselves, identifying previously unseen patterns in their behavior, and in the very woodwork of their lives.

This book will likely be an inspiration to anyone who works in rendering data, who is interested in mail art or art journaling, and anyone who simply enjoys exploring the creatively examined life.”

“Lupi and Posavec’s approach teaches mental and emotional attentiveness. Their examples inspire you to think creatively about your personal habits, and to approach them with a slowness that lets you reflect on their meaning.”

“The book itself brims with personality, and one of the most captivating discoveries is tracking the ways in which their two approaches differ – by the time you’re a third of the way through, it’s possible to discern whose diagram is whose simply by the visual schema they’ve used. It inevitably leads you to think about the way in which your own mind organises the data it accumulates, often subconsciously.”

“Such an information-reach year could inspire others to better calculate aspects of their lives they never thought to tabulate, with the goal of seeing patterns and perhaps fine-tuning negative behavior. And better yet, illustrating our life’s data by hand can allow us to slow down and invigorate our creative selves beyond the digital.”

“These postcards are tiny maps of emotion, and as each artist draws out their life in new clusters and graphs, you see how their creative companionship blossoms. Each detail, from complaints to laughter, is delicately translated into pinpoints on a greater map of friendship. We hope these postcards inspire you to map out your own life and remind you to pay attention to the little things.”

“Through the process of examining their worlds in new ways, and noting emotions, sounds, and thoughts Lupi and Posavec, like the pre-telecommunication era Decker writes about, reveal a sense of space and time that we’d never considered. Through their weekly postcard exchange the two got to know each other, and themselves. The world around them was data to be collected, to be examined.”

“This is a remarkable visual snapshot of the lives of two bright women corresponding with each other in innovative ways and will appeal to designers and best friends alike.”

“We live in a world obsessed with big data. But “Dear Data” harks back to a more nostalgic era when we deliberated over the information we took in and offered to others. Let’s call it Slow Data. “To draw is to remember,” the authors write, and their book reminds us that physical documents can be a time capsule we continually pore through long after Facebook and Instagram have made way for the next internet flavor of the month.”

“It makes for compulsive reading and shows us that data doesn’t have to be boring and clinical – the pair’s offline approach is a heartwarming record of their day-to-day activities, and a revealing glimpse into their lives.”

“Dear Data is a nice reminder that even in this hyper-technological, ever-connected world, there is a beauty and simplicity in returning to a way of connecting that both roots us to our world and to one another.”

“Dear Data will make you pause and think about what data can reveal about a person. It makes you realise that you don’t need an app to tell you anything new about yourself. Every one of us is a walking data collection, from the money in our bank account to the calories we consume in any given day. This book is a wonderful illustration of just how data-heavy the average person is. As a project, an exhibition and a book, Dear Data is fascinating, beautiful and a treat for the eyes and mind.”

“In the so-called age of “Big Data”, where we leave a data trail just by living (through our purchases, movements through the city, Internet browsing, etc), we’re surrounded by companies and governments that quantify us—and many eagerly use data-tracking apps to become more efficient human beings. Our data is aggregated, and algorithms are supposed to give us answers to anything—indeed, even to our love life. In this world, Dear Data is an invitation to step back, enjoy, and interpret the imperfect, subjective data of daily life. It’s a “personal documentary” rather than a “quantified self” project, its creators write.”

“Dear Data seeks to show that data needn’t always be used for improving efficiency, but can also be used as a way for individuals to connect with themselves and with others at a deeper, more humane level.”

“As designers, conversations about how clients can use Big Data to understand users are commonplace for Lupi and Posavec. Dear Data allowed them to step back and explore the bits of small data that they gathered without the help of apps and body trackers. Where big data can seem both cold and hard, unsafe and scientific, Dear Data offered a method for pulling personality from the numbers, getting to know someone not through words but through actual behavior.”