Hope you are well
"Hope You Are Well" is my Master's thesis from ITP. The project is a series of visualizations that analyze the language of my sent e-mails over time. Together, they reveal a surprisingly personal narrative. Data analysis becomes a tool for introspection.
I did this investigation in response to loss. My mother died from lung cancer during my second semester of ITP. My father died of the same, three years earlier. I chose to go back through my e-mail because it's the only record I have of what happened.
After parsing all my sent messages since 2005, I found that my work and personal e-mails followed particular structures. During moments of crisis, their distinct qualities started to blur. In order to understand the patterns I was seeing, I created diagrams that categorize my phrasing. I then supplemented my interpretations with linguistic analysis (primarily sentiment). I was interested in finding the gaps between computational analysis and my own biases.
Slides available here.
Notes taken at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital, March 2011.
Example of a "formal" e-mail format.
Degrees of informality across social e-mails.
Diagram of a self-regulated learning model (based on psychology journals) annotated with excerpted e-mails and gChats. I was frustrated by the impact grief and stress (see collage) had on my learning faculties. I started drawing diagrams to pinpoint which areas I was lacking in, with the hope of finding a way to address them.
Video/performance: Re-typing embarrassing e-mails sent to professors in 2011 and 2012, glitching them the more they seemed to misrepresent or not fully represent me.
Video of thesis presentation.
Life advice from my dad. Email, 9/30/05.