What long COVID taught me about life (and data) | Giorgia Lupi
Oct 16, 2024
auto_awesome
Giorgia Lupi, an information designer renowned for her innovative storytelling through data, shares her profound insights from her battle with long COVID. She discusses how she meticulously tracked her symptoms, transforming data into a compelling narrative that resonates with others. Lupi emphasizes the importance of viewing data as a living language that can enrich our understanding of personal and societal stories. Her journey highlights themes of hope, recovery, and the interconnectedness of individual experiences with broader health trends.
Giorgia Lupi illustrates how tracking personal health data can empower individuals and create empathy in chronic illness communities.
By shifting her focus to progress and gratitude, Lupi demonstrates how mindset can transform the relationship with data and recovery.
Deep dives
The Power of Intentional Data Use
Choosing which data to focus on can significantly impact understanding and communication. Information designer Georgia Luby emphasizes the importance of engaging with personal and qualitative data to enhance storytelling. For instance, she created a microsite with Google that visualizes the breakdown of plastic pollution, making an abstract threat more tangible and real. By utilizing data in creative ways, she illustrates how it can effectively convey human experiences and raise awareness about critical issues.
Data as a Tool for Personal Insight
Luby's journey with long COVID illustrates how tracking personal health data can offer hope and clarity in challenging times. By meticulously documenting her symptoms and daily activities, she aimed to identify correlations, thus empowering herself and her doctors with knowledge. This practice not only helped her cope with confusion and frustration but also served as a way to share her experience with a broader audience through a visual op-ed in the New York Times. Her approach highlights that personal data can be a means of making invisible struggles visible and creating empathy within the community.
Shifting Focus Towards Recovery
After years of tracking debilitating symptoms, Luby decided to change her perspective by concentrating on her progress and positive experiences. This new data collection focuses on achievements and moments of gratitude, which has rejuvenated her sense of hope and well-being. By employing techniques from neuroscience to shift her reaction to symptoms, she advocates for the power of mindset in recovery processes. Luby's evolving relationship with data underscores its potential to foster resilience and transformation in the face of chronic illness.
Data isn't just about numbers or trends — it's about capturing the stories that shape our lives, says information designer Giorgia Lupi. Following a long COVID diagnosis, she tracked her symptoms meticulously over four years, the data culminating in a visual "New York Times" narrative that resonated deeply with many others suffering from chronic illness. Lupi invites us to consider data not as a rigid or objective truth, but as a living language used to better understand ourselves, offering a surprising shift in perspective — depending on where you look.