November 04, 2020 Arlene Birt Meet the artists of the 2020 MCAD Faculty Biennial. Fifteen days of exponential growth fill a page: After exposure to the filled-in circle, the circles replicate exponentially throughout the next fourteen days (the quarantine period of the COVID-19 virus). This project began on the first day of coronavirus lockdown in Minneapolis. There are 32,768 circles on the page. Half of them were drawn on the last of the fourteen days. About Arlene Birt Arlene Birt is an infodesigner, visual storyteller, public artist and educator. An expert in information visualization and visual storytelling sustainability, she integrates communication and behavior change principles into her work. Birt is founder and visual storyteller at Background Stories (www.backgroundstories.com). Background Stories translates complex ideas, systems, and metrics into clear visuals and helps people (especially non-experts) understand sustainability. She creates infographics, data visualization, and visual storytelling with change-making organizations in the US, EU, and UK. An expert in information visualization and visual storytelling sustainability, Birt integrates behavior change principles into her work. A professor in Arts Entrepreneurship at MCAD, she teaches courses on infodesign, data visualization, and sustainability. Birt was trained by Al Gore on Climate Reality presentations and is always on the lookout for opportunities to create participatory, data-focused public artwork. Explore more about Arlene Birt