Overview
For this poster project, my classmates and I were given a list of 48 cultural icons from the last century who are well known for a variety of reasons. We were then asked to make that "data" meaningful by organizing the people according to more than one attribute (for example, time and wealth). Further, we were asked to use systems or patterns in nature as a model for our visualization.

Process
I tried organizing the names in many different ways, but when I finally arranged all the names across a timeline, I found that some interesting clusters occurred by the people's personality traits. It seemed that there was a strong relationship between the personalities of the characters we were given, and the traits of the era in which they lived.

In parallel to working on this project, I was reading a paper for work on biorealism—or using nature's intelligence to shape the way we design and manufacture. There was a description of the movement of fish through water that I found to be a very meaningful metaphor for the relationship I had discovered.

The movement of a fish in water affects the movement of the water surrounding it; however, the movement of the water (caused by the fish itself) in turn affects the subsequent movements of the fish. Similarly, while society creates and influences the people who live within the society, it is also shaped and guided by the actions of those whom it shaped in the first place.

Solution
My final poster uses text and image to illustrate the natural synergy between society and its inhabitants.