Visualizing health : imagery as data for changing personal practice
Name
49890094-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
7.25 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
6c43067ab9d03d2a0375408b78f6684a
Author(s)
Frost, Jeana (Jeana H.), 1973-
Advisor(s)
Brian K. Smith.
Alternative Title
Imagery as data for changing personal practice
Date Issued
2001
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
This thesis is about diabetics and their theories about their health practices. Daily decisions, such as eating and exercise habits, have clear consequences for a diabetic's health, yet many of them fail to change their behavior patterns despite knowing facts about the disease. I assumed that they might change their practices if the relationship between their actions and their blood glucose levels was made explicit. To do this, I introduced photography into diabetes diagnosis, asking people to collect images of their daily activities to complement their glucose monitoring. By combining quantitative glucose measurements with qualitative portraits of action, I hoped to make the relationship between physiology and behavior an object for discussion and reflection. More so, I hoped that diabetics who viewed these data would begin to develop new interpretations of their lifestyles that would ultimately lead to healthier activities. I will discuss studies conducted in diabetes education courses and a set of visualization tools that I designed to help people see correlations between glucose data and photographs of activity. The results of these studies suggest that photographing activities may have the potential to change the ways that diabetics understand and deal with their health.
Description
Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2001.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 60-63).
Subjects
Architecture. Program In Media Arts and Sciences.
MIT Department
Program in Media Arts and Sciences (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
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copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but
reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written
permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.
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