Mirrors, Mirrors, around me,
When I look at you, what do you see?


Click here ➚ to open in a new tab. (Wait for the Data Portrait to load. Then, hover over the tiny Mirrors to know more...)

Vanity has always been a subject of several debates and arguments with friends and family. When it comes to a person’s appearance, where are the lines between- looking presentable, appearing in a certain way for others, appearing in a certain way to avoid judgement, and self-care?

Do you present yourself in a certain way because you yourself like it, or because that is how the society wants to see you? Why do you like it? Is it because the Society approves? What happens if you made lesser efforts on your looks? Why will that not make you happy? How much effort is less effort? How much less of an effort do you need for it to be considered as not taking care of yourself?

 I rarely indulge in Vanity. I rarely indulge myself with cosmetic products, treatments, habits, and more. I like to appear the way I am, no pretence, no filter. Although, I also rarely dispute Vanity and the ones who indulge in it. But I am often asked and advised to appear in a certain way that is different from what I prefer, “It creates a good impression”, they say.

I don’t have a Camera roll full of my Selfies. In fact, I had a difficult time in coming up with my own picture for an office Newsletter, when asked. I am often asked in wonder why I do not like my pictures being taken, as if that is such an uncommon concept (which it isn’t). I am often consoled, due to assumptions, by being said that I look good, as if not being happy with my looks can be the only reason behind disliking my pictures being taken.


notice the caption?

I indulge in Vanity mostly for health, hygiene, self-care and Public decency (and maybe to amuse myself sometimes).

The above Data Portrait tells the story of how often I looked at myself in the Mirror, in the week from 2020 November 18th to November 24th, for how long, and for what reasons.

Thought Process, Design Process, Reflections and Observations

I went to-and-fro about which habit to record and visualize. Some of my other ideas involved listening to Harry Potter audio books on loop while trying to fall asleep every day (because that familiar world is comforting, and reflects upon the habits of kids that fall asleep to bedtime stories), or poking and irritating my mother playfully (because I wish to cherish every moment with her before I travel to New York). I decided on the Mirror, Mirror because it felt like it had layers of meaning behind the habit, which is personal and more than personal at the same time.

While starting to record my Data for the week, I did not have a direction yet for the Visualization of that data, I thus recorded any and all information surrounding the habit that I felt necessary. I stuck post-it notes on the Mirrors to remind me to record the data. By the end of the week, I realised the significance of the duration of the gaze, and reason for the gaze to be the most prominent points of the portrait, as it addresses some of the major questions.



For the Visualization part, one of the first ideas I decided on was to have the portrait develop gradually with time, indicating passage of time, and not have it static. And although the idea of a witty visualization, with smart representation was tempting, I, not being a person of Numbers, and Data-Maps, decided on a more straightforward infographic look, with literal graphics, rather than dots or circles in an intelligent representation.

I contemplated few different applications of the Time-Traveller (the doted lines that signifies time-travel).



The original idea was to have different Mirrors (cupboard, wall, or washroom) being represented on the Portrait, with a figure (myself) appearing in the mirror for the same duration that I, in real, took while looking at the Mirror, and representing the same activity I did while looking at the Mirror. This immediately resulting in the following hurdles:
    1) Size of the Canvas made it too congested for the graphics to appear neatly and clearly.
    2) Setting any kind of duration animation in this context (example: a figure appears for 5 seconds if I used the Mirror for 5 seconds) turned out to be a nightmare in the draw function.

 I, thus, settled with adding a mouse-over feature, that will display the specific animation of the activity in a zoomed-in manner, along with more details in the form of text. This solved the congested graphics problem, but the battle between looping and using setTimeout() or setInterval() still prevails. After exploring few ways for how the Information will get displayed on Mouse rollover, including createGraphics() and animated gifs, I settled with using static graphic images and text that is necessary. (The graphics are taking longer to develop, thus, for now it is just text.) Additionally, since the Mouse Over displays all the information, I removed a grid I had initially formed that divided the Canvas to explain the days and time of days in the background.



Never having worked with JSON formats (and limited encounters with excel / csv too), I realised the importance of how particular layouts of storing data affects accessibility as I kept working on the Code.



I still needed an idea that represents the concept of Presence in front of a Mirror. I explored using live Camera for the mapped points, instead of Mirrors, to represent the idea of one looking at oneself. But, I eventually settled with having a symbolic open eye appear in the Mirrors wherever the Mouse rolls over, to indicate a presence. The Mouse Arrow blocked the open eye, thus I used noCursor() to remove the arrow, and instead replaced it with a closed eye.

I was still not over the Idea of using Camera as an alternative for Mirror, thus I used the same as on the Introduction Page, to make the users (experiencers) more aware of their presence in front of themselves. I kept a symbolic Placeholder, in case one does not want to use Camera. To make the sketch and code less complicated, I am relying on the Browser’s consentful Interface to access or deny the use of one’s Camera. The switch from introduction to the Portrait was intentionally pre-set, and out of the Users’ control, to signify and ponder over lost opportunities while indulging in Vanity, or experience being uncomfortable while looking at oneself for longer than one might want to, and maybe other feelings one might have when one is made to look at oneself for a duration that is out of their control.

What did I realise?

I don’t look at myself a lot, or feel the need to do so. When I look at myself in the Mirror without any specific reason, it is either coincidental, or to be goofy, or to be introspective. Even though I do not notice my physical appearance a lot, it did not take anything away from me knowing myself, and taking care of myself. I’m quite content to learn about the simplicity behind this habit of mine.