<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=22hzW0_1H2mrW7j00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=22hzW0_1H2mrW7j00" width="900" height="1200" ></figure>For the average nature lover, math might not factor into the equation. But for Jer Thorp, a data artist and professor at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, the fields of mathematics and ornithology — the study of birds — could not be more connected.“We like to think of the natural world as something sacred and pre-natural that we can appreciate without thinking very hard about,” Thorp said. “Through data collection, we find the external players that are changing the world we care so much about. It’s one thing to say a species is dying; it’s another to ask why.”Data artists create abstract visual representations of data to evoke an aesthetic experience with collected information. Thorp led three Lafayette College students and three faculty members through a data art project, in which participants represented yearly visitation habits for birds at Merrill Creek Reservoir outside Phillipsburg through a postcard that they then emailed to family and friends.“Through data art, we see tangible evidence of violence and exploitation but also of rejuvenation and conservation,” Thorp said.The project was preceded by a visit to the reservoir where Thorp identified numerous bird species and explained what makes them unique and important to the habitat. Students were particularly interested in the white-throated sparrow, a winter bird with four biological sexes based on the arrangement and color of its feathers.“I thought it was so cool,” Nadia Rusnak ’29 said. “I knew a little bit about birding before, but I had no idea how immersive and rewarding of a community it really was. I felt like I learned so much about appreciating the world around us, even in just a three-hour walk.”Other birds on the trip included yellow-rumped warblers — or “butter butts,” as Thorp labeled them — tufted titmice and yellow-bellied sapsuckers. Thorp identified each bird’s mating habits, migratory cycles and diets, while giving a plethora of fun facts. “It is such a privilege to get to talk with somebody who cares as much about birds as I do,” said Gunnar Biller ‘30, who has been interested in birding since the third grade. “I really loved the session.”“It showed me that birding isn’t just a hobby, but something that is continuing to be researched and expanded,” Biller added.Janna Avon, the head of digital initiatives at Lafayette, helped coordinate Thorp’s visit.“Students are trying to find where the intersection between our hyper-digital now and the work they are actually interested in lies,” Avon said. “I think what Dr. Thorp’s visit shows is that there are humane and beneficial ways that we can incorporate technology into the work we are passionate about in a way that enriches our own knowledge, rather than taking away from it.”Avon added she was optimistic about trying birding again.“When I talk about birding with my students, they seem to think it’s this antiquated pastime for old people that doesn’t relate to their lives at all,” Thorp said. “But birding directly relates to issues of global warming, deforestation and natural intervention: the big questions that are impacting how we interact with the world we live in.”</div></body>

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For the average nature lover, math might not factor into the equation. But for Jer Thorp, a data artist and professor at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, the fields of mathematics and ornithology — the study of birds — could not be more connected.

Artist guides flock through birding, data analysis

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For the average nature lover, math might not factor into the equation. But for Jer Thorp, a data artist and professor at New York University’s Tisch School

Artist guides flock through birding, data analysis

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