You can do design without research. You can also drive blindfolded. But both have expensive consequences and usually end in being upside down in a ditch.

That brings me to what these few projects I’ve mentioned have in common. The artist creates a structure — whether that’s a map or a cordoned-off area — that holds open a contemplative space against the pressures of habit and familiarity that constantly threaten to close it. This architecture of nothing is something I frequently think about at the rose garden, which is not…

…a point does not scale and would certainly be more confusing than helpful. But every single aspect, every little story we explore by hovering over a dot makes the data more humane and makes it easier for us to tie it back to our own experience of the world.