Artistic Visualization

A recently stumbled upon Viegas and Wattenberg’s paper on Artistic Data Visualization: Beyond Visual Analytics. Here’s an example from the paper by artist Jason Salavon.

Fig: Every Playboy Centerfold, The Decades (normalized) 2002

These images clearly demonstrate how cultural tastes change over time, in particular, how beauty and sex appeal is defined by adult entertainment. I find the “artistic” aspects of this visualization intriguing. On the one hand, there appears to be a high degree of transparency in that the image appears to clearly be a set of overlayed images. In the respect, the algorithm is more exposed than if, say, a single skin tone was generated and displayed. On the other hand, the fact that the images seem to be manipulated by hand with a clear message intended by the author makes the visualization appear quite biased. As Viegas and Wattenberg point out, this lack of neutrality is what distinguished artistic visualization from scientific visualization. In fact, these artistic visualization suggests the impossibility of any visualization being completely neutral.

This visualization goes against many of the Principles of Graphic Display outlined by Tufte. For instance, Tufte cites lack of quantitative evidence as a cause of dishonest and unsophisticated graphics. Indeed, it is difficult to justify any quantitative findings in Salavon’s visualization. This image seems to epitomize the  “un-standardized time-series based on a small handful of data points” which Tufte scorns. Moreover, Salavon does not attempt to “maximize the data-ink ratio” by removing non-data ink. In fact, the “non-data” ink is arguably what makes this visualization so effective, capturing and eerie and ephemeral archetype of adult models across the decades. This visualization may not have the best light or composition (Sartore’s first and second components of great pictures) but it certainly “captures a moment…an emotion or something that jumps out of the scene.” This emotion has to do with the emerging archetypes that confirm changing tastes over time.

mix tapes vs. digital playlists (mediation, meaningful things and sign values)

Last week, I conducted some user studies to learn about music libraries. One of the participants commented on how cool mix tapes were yet how rarely he creates playlists in iTunes.

I started to wonder about the differences between old and new music media formats. In particular, I was interested in the differences between mix tapes (cassette tapes created by the user from other cassettes or CDs) and digital music playlists (lists of current or saved songs in digital music players like iTunes or Windows media player). I found various theoretical concepts helpful in thinking more precisely about these differences and how we might improve the design of digital music technologies.

View the rest of my post on the Interaction Culture Blog >>>

Are designed experiences “real”? (and other initial thoughts on Dewey and experience design)

An excerpt from my posting on Interaction Culture…

I502 started with the question of how can we (as interaction designers) design compelling experiences, such as those we experience when watching compelling films. Reading dewey caused me to step back and reflect on the very experiences we design and intend to design. When I see the term “experience design” used, it often seems to imply that designer attempts complete control over the experience of the user, i.e. the particular details of the experience are (ideally) designed prior to and in anticipation of use. In the Language of New Media, Manovich suggests that interactive new media actually exerts more control over the user than traditional media, by imposing the mental structures of the designer on the user, and i think in certain circumstances he may be right, e.g. following links on the blogs can prevent undergoing. Interactive environments such as grocery stores and amusement parks are often discussed in terms of Experience Design, where every aspect is attempted to be controlled in order to lead to increased repeat visits and increased consumption. This notion of “experience” and “experience design” is often used as pejorative. Two common critiques I see leveled against designed “experiences” are that they are (i) vicarious or simulated (divorced from reality) and hence not real or authentic, and (ii) passively consumed. I’d like to discuss some of these criticisms of the potential negative effects of vicarious, simulated, and passively consumed experience and then offer some relevant questions I’ve been thinking about.

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