Personifying code

Anything and everything we do to increase visibility of open practices and data science within environmental science communities is important. When we see things, it is easier to value them.

Openscapes Champion Allison Horst is doing this in part through her personifyr art series. She uses her art in the classroom at the University of California at Santa Barbara, where she is a lecturer of data science and statistics in an environmentally-focused graduate program, the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management. She also shares the series online, to the delight of the #rstats Twitter community (for example, see here, and check out the comments!). Through the personifyr series, Allison personifies different operations done in the programming language R. What is so powerful is that you do not have to be an expert in R or know these packages to get a sense of what they do, in a lighthearted and quite joyful way. For example,

ggplot2 creates beautiful visualizations to explore data…

A group of fuzzy round monsters with binoculars, backpacks and guide books looking up a graphs flying around with wings (like birders, but with exploratory data visualizations). Stylized text reads 'ggplot2: visual data exploration.'

…and as final publication-worthy products

A fuzzy monster in a beret and scarf, critiquing their own column graph on a canvas in front of them while other assistant monsters (also in berets) carry over boxes full of elements that can be used to customize a graph (like themes and geometric shapes). In the background is a wall with framed data visualizations. Stylized text reads 'ggplot2: build a data masterpiece.'

gganimate lets you animate those graphics

Cartoon of a bunch of monsters watching data points of varing color and shape fly across a screen like fireworks. Several monsters are lighting the data off like fireworks. Stylized text reads 'gganimate: action figures!'

lubridate helps you work with dates and times

Fuzzy cartoon monsters in construction hats sorting a pile of 'Y' 'M' and 'D's into separate piles labeled 'Years', 'Months' and 'Days'. Title text reads 'Lubridate: wrangle times and dates!'

sf simplifies working with spatial data

Three cute fuzzy monsters adding spatial geometries to an existing table of attributes using glue and tape, while one cuts out the spatial polygons. Title text reads 'sf: spatial data...simplified.' and a caption at the bottom reads 'sticky geometries: for people who love their maps and sanity.'

reprex makes asking for help more helpful

A side-by-side comparison of a monster providing problematic code to tech support when it is on a bunch of crumpled, disorganized papers, with both monsters looking sad and very stressed (left), compared to victorious looking monsters celebrating when code is provided in a nice box with a bow labeled 'reprex'. Title text reads 'reprex: make reproducible examples. Help them help everyone!'

here makes working with filepaths a dream

A cartoon showing two paths side-by-side. On the left is a scary spooky forest, with spiderwebs and gnarled trees, with file paths written on the branches like '~/mmm/nope.csv' and 'setwd('/haha/good/luck/')', with a scared looking cute fuzzy monster running out of it. On the right is a bright, colorful path with flowers, rainbow and sunshine, with signs saying 'here!' and 'it’s all right here!' A monster facing away from us in a backpack and walking stick is looking toward the right path. Stylized text reads 'here: find your path.'

RMarkdown combines text and code into beautiful reports like magic

Two fuzzy round monsters dressed as wizards, working together to brew different things together from a pantry (code, text, figures, etc.) in a cauldron labeled 'R Markdown'. The monster wizard at the cauldron is reading a recipe that includes steps '1. Add text. 2. Add code. 3. Knit. 4. (magic) 5. Celebrate perceived wizardry.' The R Markdown potion then travels through a tube, and is converted to markdown by a monster on a broom with a magic wand, and eventually converted to an output by pandoc. Stylized text (in a font similar to Harry Potter) reads 'R Markdown. Text. Code. Output. Get it together, people.'

R is an open source language with increasing functionality available at lower start up costs for new users. This is because of recently established norms and best practices developed by the diverse and inclusive online R community.

Allison’s art represents these R operations and the spirit of the online community, who have appreciated her and asked for permission to use in their own classrooms. She enthusiastically encourages this, sharing all her stats art online along with the statement:

“All of this artwork is 100% available (and encouraged!) for open use by CC-BY license. That means: Hooray! I’m so happy that you want to share this artwork - especially if it helps when teaching R/rstats/stats.”

I am so impressed by the personifyr series in so many ways. Not only by Allison’s artistic talent, which is broad and deep, spanning styles and media (fine art and digital) in ways I appreciate but do not have the vocabulary to describe. But I am also so impressed by her ability to break down and communicate complex topics, and her creativity in representing it all in such an engaging and colorful way. To imagine these programming operations as personalities, and to bring to life what they would be doing is such an incredible skill, full stop. And then additionally to have the artistic ability to match is such a gift to us all. What a powerful way to engage the community of R users and data scientists, and welcome the others, including environmental scientists, to see and value these practices as well.

Enjoy Allison’s full personifyr series — and more — here.