Herramienta de visualización
Motivated by what has been documented as desensitization to homicides in Medellín, the NGO Casa de las Estrategias challenged and invited researchers Manuela Hoyos Barba, Juana Espinosa, Sofía Montoya and Valentina Vargas to communicate data on this type of crime in a way that is visually appealing and communicatively assertive. Through graphics, maps and diagrams, they created an accurate, interactive and attractive visualization of homicides in Medellín. The study shed light on how to present information to build a more aware community.
The problem of violence in Medellín was first approached by the team, led by Manuela Hoyos Barba, through academic literature. Along with the reading process, the researchers collected and treated data from the System for Security and Social Coexistence (Sistema de Información para la Seguridad y la Convivencia - SISC) in the statistical programming language R (using the R-Studio IDE), examining variables like age, date, place, modality of crime, and so on.
In order to improve coexistence in Medellín, the authors reinforce the necessity of context in the interpretation of analytics. They advocate for an interdisciplinary look at data that stimulates the reflection on urban life and security and includes the perspective of sociologists, lawyers, historians, demographers, and community members in general.
The dashboard can be accessed through this link.
About the artist
About the project
DECODIFICANDO LA VIGILANCIA, CONVIVENCIA Y SEGURIDAD EN MEDELLÍN is a research-focused project that analyzed and visualized data on security and surveillance in Medellín. 20 young researchers from different fields were divided into six groups, led by a mentor. In collaboration with the Center of Political Analysis of the EAFIT University and the Edgelands Institute, the participants worked weekly for 8 sessions from 02/03 to 27/04/2022 reflecting on how data can improve local dialog and public policies in the city. Both the questions and the data were provided by Colombian institutions concerned with security issues, such as the House of Strategies (Casa de las Estrategias) and the Information System for Security and Social Coexistence (Sistema de Información para la Seguridad y la Convivencia - (SISC).
