Project 2: Structured Data

Debt Road

U.S. Household Debt Higher than Ever

by Francesco Lazzarino (Franco Fazuku)
March 6, 2009

Summary

The scene represents U.S. Household debt between the years 1950 - 2010.

News Source & Research Data

• The Debt Trap: Interactive Series Produced by Tom Jackson and Amy O'Leary/The New York Times.
• Federal Reserve Statistical Release: Consumer Credit Historical Data
• Bureau of the Census Projections of the Number of Households and Families in the United States (Page 5, Table C).

Video Documentary

Debt Road from Francesco Lazzarino on Vimeo.

Interaction

The blog sign launches this blog page when touched. The car will drive forward when touched while seated (upon standing up it will return to where it was). The highway can also be walked through and experienced very well in mouse look mode.

Motivation

The purpose was to demonstrate the magnitude of U.S. Consumer Debt. In recent decades there have been the highest increase and highest levels of consumer debt per American household. Consumer debt levels are very important to the economy because they relate directly to national production and economic stability. It seems as if either the last two decades are disproportionate to the rest of the post war history of U.S. consumer debt or that since WWII the growth has been exponential.

Description

Driving up an elevating road is the metaphor used to describe the change of U.S. consumer debt over time. The value of consumer debt is mapped proportionally to the elevation above the starting point on the road. The decade of each debt level is mapped proportionally to the distance from the starting point on the road. A road trip can be thought of as a 1-dimensional function in a 3-dimensional space. A time series is is usually a 1-dimensional function in a 2-dimensional (or more) space. Given a road with no turns, (or considering turns as a topological phenomena as opposed to a geometric one) the space a road trip exists in can be reduced to 2-dimensions. The metaphor is formed as a 3-step mapping: the denotational meaning of the years and debt to the abstract concept of distance and height to the metaphorical meaning of miles and elevation. To play on this mapping elevation was expressed by highway road signs showing the elevation in dollar units. Literally this makes no sense because dollars have no meaning with respect to distance from sea level, but metaphorically it holds water nicely. Mile markers as years. As the elevation sign this only makes sense metaphorically, not literally. The side of the scene is a bar graph. It seemed as if it fits. Just reiterating the data. The blog sign is modeled after a hospital sign. Just playing the transportation metaphor, no relation to the structured data, but a requirement of the assignment. Also the difficulty of driving the car up the steepest parts of the road hint at the fragility of a highly leveraged society. The font used is Univers, a common road sign font used on many transportation signage around the world (not on U.S. Highways, but close).