Data is a language all its own. When it is analyzed, beautiful stories emerge. Complex rhythms can be understood. The hidden patterns of how we live become clear. For Saloni Shah, data helps tell the complicated story of humans, their
environment, and the ways the health of humans and that of the environment are bound together.
When she entered the MS Data Visualization program, Shah noticed a deepening pattern: Environmental wellness was closely linked to human wellness. Where the environment was compromised by increased carbon emissions or deforestation—the
subject of her master’s thesis—humans struggled to maintain physical and mental health. “Without environmental wellness, there is no human wellness,” says Shah.
Shah’s intent is to make information on environmental wellness more comprehensible and compelling through data visualization. That mission has led her to create applications that expand the boundaries of data visualization. A notable example
is Disappearance, planned for display as an interactive work at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. For the project, Shah drew inspiration from Ocean Life, a lush 19th-century watercolor by James M. Sommerville, which depicts a
thriving underwater ecosystem.
Shah researched and labeled the species present in the painting and explored how climate change and pollution have threatened them. Using an augmented reality app, viewers can point their cell phone cameras at Sommerville’s painting on
the museum wall and see on the screen species from eels to sea anemones disappear — just as they have begun to disappear from the world’s oceans. In the app, a list of the species represented in Ocean Life appears alongside
the painting shown on-screen. Viewers see the entry for each creature crossed off as its likeness vanishes from the painting.
Shah, now a graduate of the MS Data Visualization program, reflects on her project, saying, “We get a glimpse of what is happening beneath the surface. You can begin to see what happens if we have an empty ocean. And react as we do to
art — emotionally.”
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