Context

"We are currently being assaulted by the 24-hour news cycle that and a hostile political climate that extends into all facets of our media consumption". The vast amount of data we consume through the media every day is incomprehensible and paralyzing. In design, there is a concept called information paralysis. Information paralysis refers to the notion that when given too much information within a short timeframe, we tend to become paralyzed and don't know how to act. Such is the case for a powerpoint slide filled with too much text or a table with too many numbers. Data visualization can help us reduce information paralysis, but often time the visualizations are cold, rational, and not effective in rousing people's feelings and actions because the representation is too abstract (Ambient Influence Can Twinkly Lights Lure and Abstract Representations Trigger Behavioral Change, Rogers et al). Thus, to make the visualization more visceral and compelling, we have chosen to use a metaphor of a phallic tie in order to illustrate the abstract concept of political oppression.

Example of an data abstract representation that fails to rouse emotion and thereby behavioral change.