Join us for a presentation by the creators of tiny letters for mothers, a non-commercial and interactive data visualisation platform based on stories of early motherhood.

The project was collaboratively conceptualised by creative research scholar Dr Dee Marco and creative developer Lara Koseff. In their presentation Dee and Lara will discuss the origin of the project, some of their design inspiration and why they decided to utilise information design and data visualisation in order to find new ways to tell the many stories of motherhood that often go unrecorded. The platform is primarily inspired by Dee’s work around motherhood and community, as well as Lara’s interest in data visualisation as a design tool that can provide extraordinary insight into human needs and values. In the second part of the talk, Lara – who studied frontend development last year – will discuss how she has been coding the platform herself, using React and the data visualisation library D3.js.

She will discuss the challenges she has faced as a coding novice, while highlighting the remarkable potential of learning these new skills through a personal project that she is passionate about, even as a primary caregiver in her 40s.

Speaker 1: Lara Koseff
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Lara Koseff is a versatile creative, writer and developer interested in the intersection of art, data and tech. Her skill set is diverse, ranging from project management, research, and curating to writing, editing, design, and communications. More recently, she has expanded her expertise to include coding, frontend web development, and UI/UX engineering, with a particular focus on JavaScript libraries, React and D3.js. She has over 15 years of experience working in the cultural sector, for galleries, publishing companies and museums. In 2020 she co-founded INCCA (Independent Network for Contemporary Culture & Art) with Londi Modiko and Nthabiseng Mokoena, a non-profit company that aims to foster independent cultural practice. INCCA grew out of numerous projects supporting independent creatives, including the UNDERLINE show in 2019. From 2010-2018, she worked at Goodman Gallery Johannesburg, primarily in a curatorial and editorial capacity and as a liaison for over 15 artists. She was part of the core team who established and managed SOUTH SOUTH, a curatorial project that evolved into a collaborative platform in 2020.

Speaker 2: Dr Dee Marco
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Dee Marco is a creative research scholar based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Dee’s research pivots around social and cultural practices and experiences of the everyday, particularly in relation to person-hood, mothering identities, Black feminisms, practices and communions of care and critical joy finding in an exhausting world. She is the founder of the multimodal research project, Mother.Lab and is a Senior Lecturer in Media Studies at Wits University. Dee’s research is also broadly interested in visual culture, cinema and black women’s methods of narration and story telling. Dee is a research associate in The Centre for Race, Gender and Class at The University of Johannesburg. In addition to critical creative work, Dee hosts diversity workshops and conversations with caregivers and mothers. Dee is the co-editor of the book, Sasinda Futhi Siselapha: Black feminist approaches to cultural studies in South Africa’s twenty-five years since 1994. Dee has contributed to various academic journals, newspapers and podcasts, including one she co-hosts, titled Mamas with Attitude. Dee’s work through Mother. Lab focuses on a series of critical public engagements over stretches of time. Some of the projects are: House of Complaints, Tiny Letters and a collaborative data visualisation project called, tiny letters for mothers. Critical to the work is the collection of data about motherhood and mental health as well as the visual and aesthetic attention and experience brought into the work as a way of consistently marking the various and ongoing labours of mothering and/ or care.

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