The dashboards of
our discontents

Vizchitra, 2026

Project Gemini Mission Control Center, NASA

This is not an aesthetics problem,
but one of misunderstood needs

How did we get here?

Dashboards let you cut ribbons

Nobody’s taking badass pictures of a dataset being released

How did we get here?

Dashboards are
the familiar pattern.

BI Audience

Known person,
known question,
and authority to act

BI Audience

Known person,
known question,
and authority to act

Public

Strangers,
no known questions,
cannot take action

Their only possible action
is more work with the data

A story, a paper, a campaign, a tool

Dashboards answer the known unknowns,
but close questions that can be asked
about unknown unknowns

What can generous
infrastructure look like?

Spoiler: There’s a Magic Solution

State censorship is recorded in certificates near the toilet in my nearest theater

CENTRAL BOARD OF FILM CERTIFICATION

Film : “UNTITLED MASS MOVIE” (Color) (2-D) · Cert No. DIL/7/86/2025-HYD · Rated A

Endorsement

Cut No. Description Duration
1 Excise the word “Old Monk” wherever it occurs (also in subtitle text) 00.00
2 Reduce the duration of kissing scene by exactly 50% 00.16
3 Delete the visuals and dialogue regarding flirting with nun character, in total 00.35
4 Mute the expletive at 1.42.06 and replace with sound of conch 00.00
Total : 00.51

censor-board-cuts/
├── scripts/
├── metadata/
├── README.md
└── data.csv

Every film, every cut, every certificate in one file!

Horses? Maps? Shah Rukh Khan?

Ask ChatGPT about a film’s censor cuts…

Linkable pages makes us the source.

We show our work.

data.csv + analysis-notebook = every chart on the site

And data flows back in!

Btw the multiscan on the contribute page is great!! Got a whole booklet 22:14 thx man, updated 🫡

There is more than one
way to public some data.

Who spends more time
cleaning up after meals?

Spread out across multiple
files and documents

sector district gender religion activity
1 13 1 1 31
1 13 2 1 92
2 13 1 2 11

The codes mean nothing without
a separate codebook

sector district gender religion activity
Rural Jammu male Hinduism salaried work
Rural Jammu female Hinduism domestic duties
Urban Jammu male Islam self-employed

Do the work: map it once,
publish one usable file

Who spends more time
cleaning up after meals?

Share your analysis with anyone with a link

diagramchasing.fun/time-use-explorer?view=time_analysis&time=9:00–10:00&state=karnataka

What can you do
for the public?

Remember, the public’s only action
is more work with the data

So build for the strangers who will do that work!

The chart is an advertisement

A wrapper, a lure, that draws attention the dataset doesn’t have yet.

  • “I don’t care about CBFC, but I care about Superman.”

The data is the main product

Not the viz or the dash! Charts get forgotten and websites will rot,
but a CSV is what the next person’s work is built on.

Charts are only advertisements
They will draw attention for the dataset.
Link are a vehicle to the world
They let things travel outwards.
The data is the product
Please, just publish the data. Seedhi baat, no bakwaas.

Thank you!
Grab some Diagram Chasing merch outside :)

Find me at

  • 🔗 aman.bh
  • 🔗 diagramchasing.fun

Illustrations by Rhea Pradeep (@rhepository)