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Struggling to remember or make sense of complicated information? Maybe a visual makeover with an eye-catching chart or graph will help! And if you have doubts about its effectiveness, allow us to introduce you to a subreddit called “Data Art”. It's a community dedicated to sharing “aesthetically satisfying data visualizations that you'd be proud to hang on your wall”.

Since its creation in 2017, "Data Art" has grown into a thriving community of over 65 thousand members who share passion for blending aesthetics and data. From evolution of the Shanghai Metro to the largest empires of history, these visualizations are not only informative but also pleasing to the eye. Scroll down to experience the beautifully presented data.

#1

How Different Piano Notes Reverberate Through A Bowl Of Water

How Different Piano Notes Reverberate Through A Bowl Of Water

MusicMadeVisible Report

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    #2

    U.S. Flag But Each Star Is Scaled Proportionally To Their State’s Population, In Roughly It’s Geographical Position

    U.S. Flag But Each Star Is Scaled Proportionally To Their State’s Population, In Roughly It’s Geographical Position

    jmerlinb Report

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    LK
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    That *IS* a very pleasing map/flag. IT would have been great to get Alaska and Hawaii involved too.

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    #3

    A Cool Guide To The Evolution Of The Alphabet

    A Cool Guide To The Evolution Of The Alphabet

    Global-Cheesecake131 Report

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    The subreddit “Data Art” has become really popular over the years. When r/DataArt reached 10,000 subscribers, the moderator u/jmerlinb decided to personally send out a DataVizDigest email summarizing the top posts of that season every 3 months. “Because data should not only be informative, but also beautiful.” If you're interested, you can sign up for their mailing list. Also, make sure to check out the most upvoted posts on the "ArtyCharty" Twitter page!

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    #4

    European Roads To Rome

    European Roads To Rome

    jmerlinb Report

    #5

    Long Exposure Of A Roomba Vacuum With A Color Changing Light On Top

    Long Exposure Of A Roomba Vacuum With A Color Changing Light On Top

    zoliva Report

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    LK
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Interesting how much of the floor has not been cleaned.

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    #6

    Language Family Tree

    Language Family Tree

    Stand Still. Stay Silent Report

    Bored Panda got in touch with Jack Merlin Bruce, also known as u/jmerlinb, the moderator of the "Data Art" subreddit. We were intrigued to learn about the inspiration behind the creation of this subreddit. Jack revealed that during the early stages of his career in data visualization, he crafted a lot of designs for various fandom communities on Reddit, such as r/GameOfThrones, r/Pokemon, and r/Chess. “I wanted to show them their passion in a new way, and for me to get a chance to design stuff I thought looked really cool. Stuff you might want to hang up on your wall, or that you would see in a coffee table book.”

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    “It was great fun,” the moderator continued, “And these works I produced tended to be quite successful in these fan communities, but were significantly less successful in the one place I thought they would have been a natural fit for - and that was (at the time) the world's largest data visualization: r/DataIsBeautiful. And this was strange to me, seeing as they were so well received in other spaces.”

    “But this isn't actually a surprise once you look into the stated aim on the sidebar of r/DataIsBeautiful: ‘Aesthetics are an important part of information visualization, but pretty pictures are not the sole aim of this subreddit.’ In other words, there are two sides to all data visualizations: the story, and the aesthetics. On one extreme, you can have a chart made in 1990s Microsoft Excel that looks horrendous but yet tells a great story. On the other extreme, you can have a chart meticulously designed by a world-class graphics designer which looks stunning in the aesthetics department but has no meat to it, no story. There's nothing inherently wrong with either type, it just depends on what your audience is expecting - and r/DataIsBeautiful catered to the first example... but I soon came to realize there was no community at the time that catered to the second example, to the ‘pretty pictures’. And so /r/DataArt was born - a subreddit for visualizations you ‘could hang up on your living room wall’.”

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    #8

    All These Countries Fit Inside Africa

    All These Countries Fit Inside Africa

    Kai Krause Report

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    The Original Bruno
    Community Member
    1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Fun fact: at the population density of the most expensive neighborhood on Earth (a suburb of Paris with no high rises), the entire Earth's population could live on HALF on Madagascar, that little chip overlaid by the UK. Overpopulation is not about space; it's about the technology to judiciously use and continuously reuse resources. Right now, the average American's ecological footprint is dozens of acres. It could be a fraction of a single acre. If we could build a self-sustaining terrarium habitat for humans on Mars, imagine how much easier it would be to do it on Earth! The key to sustainability is increased resource effectiveness, which relies on economic growth.

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    #9

    Nyt's Front Page For 21 Feb. Each Dot Represents A Life Lost To Covid-19 In The Us

    Nyt's Front Page For 21 Feb. Each Dot Represents A Life Lost To Covid-19 In The Us

    sendhelpandthensome Report

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    Moxitron Jazz
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    should be seperated by colours; one for ignorant and mentally enslaved fools who denied the virus' danger, and those who sadly died from being unjustly exposed...

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    According to Jack, the main goal of r/DataArt is to offer people a space where they can try out new ideas and approaches to thinking about and working with data. “While our primary aim is to allow people to share artworks, we also make an exception for data visualization that might not necessarily be aesthetically pleasing, but which pushes the boundaries of the medium itself.

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    We've had people posting all sorts of amazing and unique work - charts that they knitted with colored thread, 3D-printed earthquake seismograms, data sonification (where sound is used to encode numeric values as opposed to color/shape/size, etc.), VR-based visualizations - all of this stuff was welcome in our community. I wanted r/DataArt to as closely mimic the experience of walking through a modern art exhibition but for data.”

    #10

    Paths Of 800 Unmanned Bicycles Being Pushed Until They Fall Over

    Paths Of 800 Unmanned Bicycles Being Pushed Until They Fall Over

    GJenkins4 Report

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    Soton_Sherpa
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Two comments: Firstly, who pays for this sort of "research"? Secondly, and more importantly, can I have some cash for my project of tracking wave patterns on golden sandy beaches in the South Pacific?

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    #11

    These Diagrams Show The Paths Traced By Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter And Saturn As Seen From Earth

    These Diagrams Show The Paths Traced By Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter And Saturn As Seen From Earth

    Vanilla35 Report

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    Lyone Fein
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I'm just wondering how these pictures correspond with the ones of the notes of the musical scale.

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    #12

    A Map Of Finland's Bear Population, Made Up Of Bears

    A Map Of Finland's Bear Population, Made Up Of Bears

    jmerlinb Report

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    LK
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    The magnificent bears of glorious Finland seem to be creating a defensive wall against Russia.

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    In addition to sharing visually appealing visualizations, r/DataArt distinguishes itself as a community that prioritizes content curation more than others. “But as aesthetics are (by and large) subjective, this can be difficult when confronted with what is probably the bane of our moderation team (shout out to u/OdBox), and that is the infographic,” Jack shared.

    “There is nothing inherently wrong with infographics. When done well, they can be amazing at conveying complex information in easily digestible ways. However, for some reason they tend to attract a spammy crowd, and /r/DataArt gets our fair share of these submissions, most of which we remove. There are times when these removal decisions might seem arbitrary - as it is impossible to pinpoint the exact moment when an infographic becomes a piece of ‘data art’ and vice versa. But alas, a line has to be drawn somewhere. I guess it really goes back to the reason why I created this sub in the first place: there was no centralizing community for data art, but there were plenty of communities online for infographics (e.g. Reddit’s own /r/Infographics). r/DataArt - as with all communities - is ultimately defined by what it is not.”

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    #13

    This Map Is Drawn Entirely From Shipping Logs From 1945

    This Map Is Drawn Entirely From Shipping Logs From 1945

    jmerlinb Report

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    #14

    Hey Jude Lyrical Composition [oc]

    Hey Jude Lyrical Composition [oc]

    BoMcCready Report

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    T'Mar of Vulcan
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Makes me think about the movie "Yesterday". "Hey, Dude?" "That was bloody Ed Sheeran!"

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    #15

    [oc] My Wife Made This Blanket That Indicates A Certain Temperature For Every Day Of The Year. 2016 Pennsylvania

    [oc] My Wife Made This Blanket That Indicates A Certain Temperature For Every Day Of The Year. 2016 Pennsylvania

    jmerlinb Report

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    Soton_Sherpa
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Do the cats move to show today's high and low temperature? If not, why not! 🤭

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    Aesthetics is all about making things look pleasing. When we apply aesthetics to data, we can transform dull numbers into visually attractive and easier-to-comprehend elements. We asked Jack about his thoughts on how the combination of aesthetics and data enhances our understanding and appreciation of information. According to the moderator, we are all inundated, overloaded and overstuffed with content. “From the moment we wake to the moment we sleep we are often hooked into a near-constant stream of information. And the reality is most data in its raw form can actually be pretty dry, it just can't compete. Our monkey brains just aren't wired that way.

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    But what our brains are fantastic at interacting with are things like color, shape, size, patterns, orientation, and all the facets that sum up to create our sense of sight. That's why so much of our brain power is dedicated to vision, more than any of our other senses. As such, data visualization is how we use our brain's architecture to get it to understand and interact with traditionally dry, data-based, complex topics. In other words: aesthetics are to data what touch screens are to computers.”

    Without the visualization aspect of data, we'd be left navigating an endless roiling ocean of meaningless digits without a map or even a paddle to orient us. But while proper visualization does have far-reaching implications in big important areas of society - like multi-billion dollar government infrastructure investments or medical imaging - I believe there should always be space for that cool-looking poster you just wanted to hang up on your wall, and that's why r/DataArt exists.”

    #16

    How Long Animals Live - The Lifespan Of 50 Animals Visualized On A Spiral

    How Long Animals Live - The Lifespan Of 50 Animals Visualized On A Spiral

    alansfactoryoutlet Report

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    Fat Harry
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    The real crime here (and, as far as I'm concerned, conclusive proof there is no god) is the massive discrepancy between human and dog.

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    #17

    [oc] I Rendered Every Single Road In Tokyo Area On One Map. Love The Results

    [oc] I Rendered Every Single Road In Tokyo Area On One Map. Love The Results

    jmerlinb Report

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    mooshoflove
    Community Member
    1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    If not for the title of the post or on the image itself, I wouldn't think this was a creepy cool monster, getting ready to chomp on someone -- I do like the image.. what it represents gives me heart hiccups..

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    #18

    Every Lighthouse In Ireland, With Accurate Timings, Flash Patterns And Colours

    Every Lighthouse In Ireland, With Accurate Timings, Flash Patterns And Colours

    jmerlinb Report

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    nm
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Old salt here. The lighthouses in the same area have different flashing patterns, for easier recognition and identification in the chart. The red sector indicates danger and must be avoided.

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    #19

    Smarties Colour Distribution

    Smarties Colour Distribution

    Koljax Report

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    Carla Beck
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    These must be Canadian smarties- they look exactly right to me!

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    #20

    Anatomy Of The Human Body, In The Style Of The London Underground Map

    Anatomy Of The Human Body, In The Style Of The London Underground Map

    jcsimmo Report

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    #21

    [oc] Words For "Mother" Descended From A Common Proto-Indo-European Root

    [oc] Words For "Mother" Descended From A Common Proto-Indo-European Root

    UWillAlwaysBALoser Report

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    Remi (He/Him)
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    And then Finnish which is not part of the group does it's own thing with "Äiti"

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    #22

    [oc] This World Map Is Made Of Only Air Currents. If You Look Closely, You'll See Country Outlines

    [oc] This World Map Is Made Of Only Air Currents. If You Look Closely, You'll See Country Outlines

    Jack Merlin Bruce Report

    #23

    Morse Code Guide By Google

    Morse Code Guide By Google

    11irondoggy11 Report

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    UnpopularPanda
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I've read somewhere that distress call SOS (... --- ...) doesn't actually stand for anything, it was used because how easy/simple/unique/whatever it was to communicate in Morse code

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    #24

    Wow!!!

    Wow!!!

    akasaiga Report

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    Adam S
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Guessing it’s something to do with phases of the moons / eclipses, but agree that an explanation would be helpful - especially given the article is about making sense of data!

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    #25

    History Of The Mississippi River, As Drawn In 1944

    History Of The Mississippi River, As Drawn In 1944

    Harold Fisk Report

    #26

    I Made This Poster After Researching The Origins Of Santa Claus

    I Made This Poster After Researching The Origins Of Santa Claus

    puddelles Report

    #28

    From Flowing Data. Coral-Like Cities To Show Road Networks

    From Flowing Data. Coral-Like Cities To Show Road Networks

    redflavormp3 Report

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    #29

    Real Proportions Of All Land Masses Revealing Actual Areas Of Countries, Territories And Major Islands Without Any Distortions (By Art.lebedev)

    Real Proportions Of All Land Masses Revealing Actual Areas Of Countries, Territories And Major Islands Without Any Distortions (By Art.lebedev)

    artlebedev Report

    #30

    How To Build A Human

    How To Build A Human

    tabletopwhale Report

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    Christopher Preston
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    People, please don't start kicking off about whether it is a foetus or a baby. Just enjoy the interesting image.

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    #31

    I Made A Bar Graph Of My Favorite Quarantine Beers

    I Made A Bar Graph Of My Favorite Quarantine Beers

    reddit.com Report

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    Soton_Sherpa
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    "Bar" being the operative word! Also, where does the dog bowl fit in? 🤔

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    #32

    The Globe Centred On Honolulu - Topographic Map From A Single Spiral Line

    The Globe Centred On Honolulu - Topographic Map From A Single Spiral Line

    onionleafprints Report

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    #33

    This "Photo" Of The Sun Uses Neutrinos Instead Of Light, And Is Taken At Night By Looking Through The Earth

    This "Photo" Of The Sun Uses Neutrinos Instead Of Light, And Is Taken At Night By Looking Through The Earth

    jmerlinb Report

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    T'Mar of Vulcan
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Well, as Col. Jack O'Neill said, "Nintendos pass through everything!"

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    #34

    The Sentiment Scale: How Positive Or Negative A Word Sounds

    The Sentiment Scale: How Positive Or Negative A Word Sounds

    yougov Report

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    Dominik
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    love how "awesome" also has a negative sound. For irony/sarcasm? (asking as a non-native speaker)

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    #35

    World Temperature Anomalies [oc]

    World Temperature Anomalies [oc]

    cavedave Report

    #36

    139 Years Of Global Temperatures Knit Into A Baby Blanket

    139 Years Of Global Temperatures Knit Into A Baby Blanket

    itsacalamity Report

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    UpupaEpops
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I wonder if you could use thicker yarn depending on the colour. A baby wouldn't necessarily appreciate it, but it would be interesting for a larger blanket. Feeling hundreds of years of temperature differences all at once.

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    #37

    Lat And Long Data Of Every Town In The World With More Than 1000 People

    Lat And Long Data Of Every Town In The World With More Than 1000 People

    black_red_ranger Report

    #38

    (Some Of) The Largest Empires Of History, Visualised As Planets Orbiting Earth

    (Some Of) The Largest Empires Of History, Visualised As Planets Orbiting Earth

    Jack Merlin Bruce Report

    #39

    90 Minute Public Transit Commuter Zone For London vs. San Francisco

    90 Minute Public Transit Commuter Zone For London vs. San Francisco

    undertheraedar Report

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    Alexandra Davis
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I can get from Stafford, Staffordshire on a train in 1h10 so this map is wrong. It extends a lot further!

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    #40

    Most Common Themes Of 8000 Picasso Paintings, Visualised In The Style Of Picasso

    Most Common Themes Of 8000 Picasso Paintings, Visualised In The Style Of Picasso

    Alberto Lucas López Report

    Note: this post originally had 120 images. It’s been shortened to the top 40 images based on user votes.

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