DataWagashi by Tiange Wang

Inspired by Wagashi, the traditional Japanese confection art regarded as a microcosm of time, space and nature, DataWagashi is a new medium aiming to make climate data tangible, accessible and fun by blending taste, smell, touch, texture, and physical interaction into the vocabulary of data communication.

The DataWagashi project was conceived in response to a growing need to raise awareness about environmental issues. These global crises often seem overwhelming and distant, detached from the realm of our immediate senses. Our project aims to bridge that gap by bringing ecological data into a more intimate, approachable, and even palatable sphere.

Starting with the question, "How might we create tangible experiences around climate data by engaging senses beyond the visual?", the project elevates traditional data visualization by incorporating sensorial and interactive elements into the mix. It pushes the boundary of data storytelling by transcending data from a purely visual medium to a multisensory experience.

Imagine tasting the rising carbon footprints of different foods by sampling the escalating bitterness in a set of DataWagashi pieces, or sensing the retreat of icebergs by nibbling on a series of pieces with shrinking honeydew filling. Using the familiar and enjoyable medium of food to represent pressing environmental data, this unique approach fosters emotional engagement and empathy towards these critical messages. By blending Wagashi - a time-honored craft celebrating seasons and nature - with contemporary technology, DataWagashi infuses a distinctive aesthetic and philosophical depth to data representation, encapsulating the narrative coherence and experiential delight to create collective moments around climate awareness.

Our process involves a custom pipeline that integrates data analysis, data-driven climate narrative building, digital algorithmic prototyping, physical prototyping, and experience design. This unique process is central to creating simple, rigorous and delightful DataWagashi experiences. It expands the edges of using experimental mediums in data communication, where the synthesis of food attributes and data yields a vivid and more profound communication of insights and messages. By effectively blending digital data points with sweet recipes, it balances data representation and edibility, and creatively represents environmental narratives through a comprehensive multisensory experience.

With DataWagashi, we seek to influence narratives and inspire thought leaders, educators, influencers and future makers in how they approach storytelling of complex data. Having already sparked numerous productive conversations about innovative data representation and multisensory techniques by sharing the DataWagashi experience with diverse public audiences, we look forward to building more connections through this idea, and seeing more people inspired by this approach and incorporate it into their own practices.