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Today’s slightly mad idea: how about an ad hoc hashtagunpluggedViz club this summer?

“With the holidays now in full swing, I know I’ll benefit from some kind of structure to help me embrace the change of pace and enjoy reflecting on the things we get up to in the summer juggle.”

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Affiliation

Building Stories with Data

Published

June 28, 2025

Our holidays started today. I made this this afternoon with the materials we got out for a quick craft/lego session, and thought “maybe I should make this a thing this summer”.

Mark making representation of my trip to the zoo using dot marker pens and paper. Different coloured pens have been used to represent different animals as well as playground equipment.

If you want to join me, here are the rules. Make something with pen and paper / physical materials, in 5-10 minutes, that captures something of what you did during the day and share it. It doesn’t matter what you make, but it needs to be made with your hands, without a computer.

It doesn’t need to include data (no, I did not count those flamingos), but it needs to be a visual representation of something from your day (can you spot the penguins, the play parks with the slides, and the mummy hippo with baby Haggis?).

There’s no need to do it every day (I definitely won’t). It’s not about being artistically impressive. It’s about taking a minute or two to reflect and practice visualizing things in new ways without overthinking it. And enjoying some good old analogue, DIY creativity.

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For attribution, please cite this work as:
Thompson, Cara. 2025. “Today’s Slightly Mad Idea: How about an Ad Hoc hashtagunpluggedViz Club This Summer?” June 28, 2025. https://www.cararthompson.com/posts/2025-06-28-unpluggedviz-summer-club/.