In the former post I gave a review of Bas Broekhuizen’s presentation, providing an introduction to data visualization. Now that this is said, the focus of this blog post is on the experience of data visualizing projects of the other presenters of the day, Jerry Vermanen and his Rehioheack initiative.

An important field that is coping whit the new circumstance of the digital age and imagery that surrounds us, is that of the field of journalism. As a variety of data sources are provided on the Internet, research journalism takes a shift to the digital age. Herewith statistical data plays an important role, giving way to visualizations to structure complex information. Two noted sources that both entered the world of data visualization in their own way are the New York Times and The Guardian, for instance.

Reflecting on the new possibilities, journalist of the Stantor, Jerry Vermanen initiated amongst others, the Regiohack initiative. To explore the field of data visualization in relation to data journalism. Regiohack was held last November between journalist, programmers and open data experts, to explore the possibilities of data journalism. In a thirty hour during project meeting, the participants managed to build several data visualization in small groups. Learning on the spot, combining talent, inspiration and expertise to come towards a better understanding of the do’s and don’ts of data visualization in relation to journalism. Combining regional data with public information from the Internet, with the purpose to visualize new insights and possible relations between the complex information. All in order to show the hidden stories to the public and gain experience in data journalism.

Jerry Vermanen presents the outcome of the project at the CBS data visualization day, as he explains the challenges that journalist have to overcome towards data visualization. One such challenge, he says, is that journalists are aware of the possibilities and benefits data visualization can brin. They search for ways to combine their news worthy stories with great visualizations though, are often not equipped to the technical competencies that are needed to build a data visualization. As on the other end, programmers are very much trained to visualize complex data, they lack mostly in the content and designer part of the spectrum, to provide a catchy impact to their stories. The Regiohack initiative provided in this way, the opportunity to all these kind of data experts, to combine their skills and work towards stronger displays of data visualization. What the participants learned and which hassles they need to overcome building on their projects, is shown in this impression. (Dutch only).

Click here to view the embedded video.

The results of the Regiohack program are amongst the learning time a fair collection of visualizations. Such as the “Murder map”, the ‘Two Hundred of Twente’ (still running) and a visualization of housing associations in Oost Nederderland.

The difficulties that needed to get by are various, from exploratory; what tools provide the best outcome? To relevance; do the visuals really provide new insight next to the news articles? To practical; (how to fit the process of visualizing into journalism daily work? Answers to all question are not provided by Vermanen yet, though he pleats for education of programming and graphic tools for journalists. As he explains that the digital tendency asks for journalist to perform as one-stop-shops for editing, cameo and graphical skills that on a day to day bases, cannot meet. Should journalist apply to this trend and adapt themselves to the high demands of the digital age?

For me Regiohack show us that, for the time being, it might be wise to search for capable teams of designers and programmers to work with, for the nearby future of the written word is a visualized one.

With this seminar statistic data supplier CBS invited several data visualization professionals, to present their work in order to explore the data visualization field and the different disciplines involved. The main question that rises today is how to uses the benefits of presenting complex data, in an informative way for the bigger public.

Visualizing data in an interactive way is seen as the next best thing, as it combines several disciplines from data mining, programming and interactive graphic design amongst others. As interactive info graphics generate more attention, data sets grow bigger as we speak, demanding for less abstract visualizations. Herewith statistical data becomes important in a new way, as it functions as input for presenting complex data in a graphic interactive manner to the public. With this new frontier in sight, the questions that are posed at this seminar are of an exploration, yet important quality. For starters, how to make a data visualization, which tools to use that provide the best graphical view, how can data visualization be used in structuring large  and complex data sets, and how to make sure the interactive aspect of the data visualization really contributes to a better understanding of the data?

Hopefully the report  of this day will contribute to the explorations and insights of the CBS and the data visualization field. Since the inspiring presentations of the day, cannot be discussed at once of limited space, I decided to start posting with the first presentation of the day, right here, and work my way through the day in a small series of further posts.

Professor of Journalism of the UvA Media & Culture Institute Bas Broekhuizen kicked off whit his presentation. He gave an introduction of the data visualization field, stating that data visualization is a way to communicate the story behind the data. For data visualization has the function to interpret, get insight of, analyze, captured and  personalize data.

Interactive data visualization benefits from an upcoming popularity, as info graphics pop up in all layers of society. In commercials, public service tools, infotainment , higher culture and in collecting all kinds of data about ourselves with the latest apps. Herewith the idea arises that data visualization is a form of popular culture, a way to express developments in society. The digital age revolves in a visual world, for graphical data is everywhere around us, providing an insight into the complexity of our time. Info graphics are recognized as imagery language to instruct and explain, often not so much used as data visualization. These kind of graphics, often do not provide an insight in the used data of figures and content itself. They are made to take notion of a set message, to inform or entertain. So are (info) graphics a hype, answering to our need to entertain and occupy ourselves? And is data visualization the next step in this development? I think there is more to it, as Broekhuizen explains.

The first part in his introduction to the field, is to note the difference between an info graphic and a data visualization. For an info graphic is not a data visualization per se, the difference can be noted in showing the data within the visualization, according to Broekhuizen. To understand the difference a lineage of data visualization is provided, containing of two starting points. The first  point starting with graphic communication in cave man drawings and the starting of writing. The second within the development of science with the known examples of William Playfair and John Snow showing important insights, that are drawn from the visual displays of complex information. Towards the scientific field of information visualization, know from of the 1970’s where scientist used visual displays for further research purposes. New genres of data visualization occurred with the benefits of this earlier research. Where data experts scientists combined interdisciplinary research to explore new ways to visualize data. Their insight brought a lot of new ways of visualize large data sets, such as now a days on the Internet. For example in the Open Data movement. And large corporate businesses that provide data sets, to state their transparency of cash flows and gained goods. And with the mentioned Open Data movement, also governments provide their data online. Such as in the US, Uk and the Netherlands.

As seen the field of data visualization is not new, though the current circumstances result in new possibilities. One of the new features of data visualization nowadays is that of interactivity and the availability of interactive graphic tools, such as Tableau, Google and Many Eyes.

The possibility of interaction is one of the most important distinctive for data visualization. For Broekhuizen interactivity is; the extent to which form and content of a message can be influenced in real time. Speaking of form and content the aesthetic question comes in mind, should data visualization be beautiful or effective or both?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Which brings us to the Tufte and Holmes discussion of ‘tell the story vs reveal the data’. For Broekhuizen a data visualization should be engaging, it needs to pull its public towards the visualization to get them interested in the message. Applying this on interactivity, he explains, that on the one hand, interactivity enlarges the public’s involvement, as well as it enlarges the public’s cognitive abilities. Which can result in a downgrade of understanding the message. This paradox of interactivity can be overcome by rethinking the goal of the data visualization, he says. Herewith his ideal structure of a data visualization is a visualization with an first overview and zoom layers and filters, for further exploration options. Though this ideal structure is not leading, he says. A good alternative for this can be the possibility of narrative.

Herewith the first step towards the land of data visualization, is to ask oneself which function the message has that is to be visualized. For Broekhuizen, this can be to inform, persuade, entertain or share, each with their own strategy, that can be given their own function within the data visualization.

My first impression after this presentation, is that it seems that all the ingredients of data visualization are present, though the right recipe is not provided yet. However it may taste like in the near future, I am sure it will be beautiful.

Search is not only getting more social as we speak, it is getting more personalised with every change Google makes. Although for most consumers, the paradigm of ‘recommendations from friends are better than automated search results’ just started to kick in, Google is already headed for the next station. Google+ integration into your search results was just a beginning. Imagine a Google, only for you. Google will not only be used to search for ’stuff’ on the web. With the integration of every possible thing in the cloud, Google can search anything from your life. Let’s imagine the next integration will be GMail, so when I am logged in and search for a certain subject, it will not only show results from the web, but also emails from you that are related to the subject. Only one searchbar in your life: quite a powerful concept.

I am most excited about the fusion between Google+ and their Search by Image. We’ve all imagined a world of face recognition software that would instantly tell us who that person sitting across you is, and now that world seems to be a little bit closer.

Check the video for a concise summary:

Originally posted at my own blog, but I think it fits here aswell.

Rather than looking at why the brain responds like it does to visual cultural artifacts, this approach of looking at how natural selection affected visual perception, to Changizi, seems more fruitful when discussing design as something that has emerged out of cultural selection. Since the visual and oral tradition is a predominant aspect of society, Changizi describes culture as “a new kind of blind watch maker”.

In his books, “The Vision Revolution” and the recently published “Harnessed“, Changizi seeks out parameters that have their origin in nature such as color, the starburst shape, writing and music. For example, the starburst shape which is commonly used in design, can be found moving quickly through space (streaks start appearing from a center point). What is eventually applied in design is an optical illusion of movement; it generates the perception of how the world will look in the matter of a second.

One of the other disciplines that can be explained through natural selection is music of which the variables can be traced within the sounds made by humans. For example, beat and rhythm can be connected to gait, pitch to direction, loudness to distance and tempo to speed. Eventually, the binding factor in the relation between music and human dynamic can be found in that they share the property of having a trajectory; “a fictional story of a movement in space which can be ultimately understood through nature”.

In conclusion, Changizi believes that in order to understand why aspects in design and visual and oral culture exist and operate like they do, neuroscientists beyond looking at the brain for results, should not shy away from a nature-harnessing methodology to “fill in the unexplanatory”.

Paola Antonelli first explained how she sees the role as curator: her goal is to trying to see the potential and lead the way. No science fiction, but about having an intuition of what MOMA could be. The exhibition Talk to Me is a perfect example of looking in the future but still being grounded. The show is about objects, and how these have always communicated with us. The MoMa provides the following description:

‘The exhibition focuses on objects that involve a direct interaction, such as interfaces, information systems, visualization design, and communication devices, and on projects that establish an emotional, sensual, or intellectual connection with their users’.

Talk to Me is full of interaction: the public can use phones QR codes and Twitter to activate certain artworks. The show is divided into different sections such as Life, Objects, “Talk to Me”, “I’m Talking to You”, “Double Entendre” and Life. Ms. Antonelli showed during her talk a considerable number of art works that are exhibited. Too much to write all about and keep this an article you would read. So, for this reason I will only name a few, just to give an impression.

Within the section Talk to Me section Ms. Antonelli showed Pig 05049 by Christien Meindertsma. Pig 05049 is a book based on a three-year research project about all the products made from a single pig. Ms. Meindertsma chose one pig to show a bigger story, a story about the efficiency of food production and how a pig shows up unforeseen in all different kinds of products. She writes:

‘Amongst some of the more unexpected results were: Ammunition, medicine, photo paper, heart valves, brakes, chewing gum, porcelain, cosmetics, cigarettes, conditioner and even bio diesel’.

Pig 05049 by Christien Meindertsma

In the category Life was the famous EyeWriter collaborative created by a collective of different groups. The EyeWriter is a device which makes it possible to make art with only the use of eye movement. This also makes it possible to write something, the device is especially made for a graffiti writer, who is diagnoses with ALS in 2003. I have used the EyeWriter last year at the Cinekid festival and was amazed by the ease of use. It is a bit tiring – you have to stare really intense to make an ‘eye click’ on a certain letter – but when you don’t have the ability to use speech or physical movement it is definitely empowering.

EyeWriter

Karen Rosenberg from The New York Times wrote a review about the show who can be describes as  partly enthusiastic but also pessimistic. She partly explaines this by telling that she just read Gary Shteyngart’s “Super Sad True Love Story”. This book is often placed in the same category as Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World and  George Orwell’s “1984″: it is about a dystopian world where direct human contact is obsolete, life resolves around the “äppärät.” Ms. Rosenberg writes:

‘Call me a reactionary, but I’m convinced that looking, not scanning or tweeting, is still the primary purpose of a museum visit’.

Ms. Rosenbergs argument is valid but I personally don’t agree with her: this exhibition is about interaction. One of the purposes of Talk to Me, as Ms. Antonelli explained in her talk, is to make people less afraid of technology, to show the human side in a playful sort of way. And yes, maybe we look way too much to our screens than to each other, but did we really contemplate that much before. The famous book from 1985 called “Amusing Ourselves to Death” by Neil Postman wrote almost the same thing, television was the dangerous object around that time.

I think this show tells us that even though we are entranced by moving images, we are still able to make worthwhile, smart objects. Technology can dehumanize, but it also can enhance our personal world and bring empowerment. Yes, there are threats within technology, but let’s try to think as Ms. Antonelli and all those artists in the show and on the symposium. Let’s celebrate the creativity behind technology. Let’s focus on the potential of all these technologies and this visual obesity. The only thing you need is a snippet of creativity, maybe a computer, or some electronic toys, a certain dosage of time, a lot of persistence and a significant amount of coffee.

For further reference:
Art works: check this link to see all the selected art works for the show.

Guest speakers:

Paola Antonelli, curator, MOMA NYC, I/US
Matthieu Laurette, Activist/Artist, FR
Peter Kennard, Activist designer, UK
Tracy Metz, Journlalist/Moderator, NL/US
Lex Runderkamp, Journalist, NL
Mark Changizi, Neurobiologist, US
Koert van Mensvoort, Philosopher, NL
Bas Kosters, Fashion designer, NL
Dan Perjovschi, Activist/Artist, RO
Bregtje van der Haak, documentary maker, NL
Marijke de Bie, curator/film& design, NL
Sophie Krier, designer/conference curator, NL
Mieke Gerrizen, Director, NL

Some of the main effects of images were questioned: What is the meaning of the image? What do we do with images? What do they do with us? What does it with our attention span what does it do with language? But most of all, what is the communicative power of the image? Additionally, the lectures did not solely focus on images but also on design and the impact of new technologies on today’s society.
While some speakers acclaimed new technology and media such as Twitter and Facebook as a powerful ways to broadcast images throughout the world, others such as Koert van Mensvoort were quite skeptical about our future in his. Indeed, in his anthropomorphobic tales, Koert questioned the way products increasingly become human (think: robots), but also the way humans are becoming products (think: plastic surgery).

Among the most important themes of the symposium were the themes of creativity, graphic design, images, political changes and activism. The image was described as a social agent, as a biological process, as the playground of our imagination, as a cultural criticism, and as a revolutionary power.

The different works displayed showed how creativity and design can have an impact on the world we live in. Examples of works displayed throughout the symposium are Sputniko’s menstruation machine, the tweenbots (human-dependent cardboard robots that navigate a city with the help of pedestrians), Rubik’s Cube for the Blind, Peter Kennard’s photomontages, images of Sadam Hussein’ statue being taken down, and Dan Perjovschi’s doodles.

As an overview to the event, I believe that the event was very interesting for anyone interested in art, design and the impact of images on our current society.
Each speaker added their own contribution to the symposium and their speech was in no way redundant. The day-long programme carefully planned with breaks and movies in between talks, which made it stress-free and easy to follow. The speakers each displayed their work or works worth displaying with professionalism and a good degree of humor. Despite a relatively relaxed atmosphere, the talks given were well prepared and touched upon significant matters.

The audience left the room with an increased awareness in the power of design and technology.
I was surprised not only by a video of “The Hips” by Nick Knight at the end of the event but especially by the event closing without a Q&A session. This was however not a problem as the speakers sat among the crowd waiting for their turn to speak just as common mortals,  and stayed for drinks after the event, making the session a lot more interesting.

Waste2No.
Waste2No project explores how the Internet of Things (IOT) can be integrated with Urban and domestic environments in order to enhance sustainability. In this stage, the project aims to create a website that allows people to share, sell and trade.
Waste2No plays in to the community feeling, of sharing things with people in your environment. It is an app where you can point out the things you can miss by scanning them and putting them in the object cloud. Consequently, people in your close vicinity do the same and when you need something you can look up through the app if people around you might be able to lend it to you. I liked this project very much having in mind the enormous amount of waste people produce. From my own obsession with recycling, I could only cheer for this project as not only do we prevent ourselves from buying everything, it will also increase the connections within a neighbourhood.

Chokepoint
This project aims to map ‘owners’ on the internet. Where are the control nodes of the service used by thousands of global citizens.
An Amsterdam based project that gives workshops on how the internet works. They for example teach children on how the network functions and ask critical questions such as:”Is the internet only turned off in a little circle, or in the whole country?” If there is still connectivity you can use that still to communicate. An important asset as we are ever more exposed to the Internet and more dependent of technology. Asking critical questions can’t start early enough and is done way too little!

As I mentioned earlier, there were many many more projects but I will keep the amount to be discussed here limited.

The second day was important for us as we would meet up with several people from the cartography group. As the schedule of Cultura Digital was quite chaotic despite the strict time schedules, we noticed that many of our ‘colleagues’ were as lost as we were. Eventually we decided to make our own network meetup and had a long and useful talk with Breno and Mariana, two members of a group called Mapas de Vista, an app in order to map on CMS systems such as Drupal and Wordpress. After a short presentation of Leo, the more technical expert behind the system he got us convinced and in only a few mouse clicks, we destroyed our whole website. Obviously, as it was supposed to be a simple operation, it always turns out be not so simple in the end. Luckily, we were in the presence of the right people and were able to install the website the right way eventually. Even though not nearly finished yet, please feel free to have a peek at our new website: http://mapmob.org.

After that, all participants were invited to have a look in IPE, at Morro da Conceiçao, a digital culture space with a political notion. After a tour in a beautiful part of Rio, we were treated with a performance by a theater group treating gender topics amongst others.

The final day then, we were scheduled for a presentation that got completely on the background of all the interesting things to do. We spend the whole morning editing but managed to complete it at the due time. Unfortunately our attempt to upload it ended up a little buggy, but we’ll try soon again. Ellen prepared a last minute Portuguese presentation informing about our project Dreammachine.
And as we haven’t been updating you much lately, this is shortly what it’s about:
Our aim is to visualize dreams of youngsters in order to make them think out of the box. Not only do we believe dreaming is great and necessary to get yourself inspired to achieve things, at the same time we want to challenge them to use new techniques such as video and photo editing. Our experiences so far, in the Netherlands are that many of the kids still remain dreaming in terms of work and that only few talk about becoming happy. As well money seemed to be an important issue for many of the kids (often from Moroccan and Turkish descent).

The gran finale of Festival Cultura Digital was the arrival of old minister of Culture Gilberto Gil. Although I often don’t feel much for ‘the famous’ I caught myself laughing sheepishly as mister Gil patted me friendly on the back. A proud feeling of our first festival as map:m()b duo.

Among them are Khoi Vinh, former NYTimes.com design director, Marco Arment, creator of Instapaper, Horace Dediu, mobile computing analyst, and Shawn Blanc, an influential technology blogger. Together they receive more than 1.3 mln. page views per month.

Advertisers can pay on a weekly or daily basis for The Syndicate’s writers to post about their product or service. It is labeled as sponsored content and published across authors’ blogs and RSS feeds.

The Syndicate stands apart from other ad networks because it sells advertising space right in the content stream of its participating blogs rather than placing graphic ads next to it.

Thus The Syndicate is easier to be maintained from a technical point of view. Also, its writers do not have to rely on CPM advertising, where pageviews are more precious than readers’ loyalty.

Marcelo Somers, business writer and the representative member of The Syndicate, was kind enough to answer a few questions about the network:

What is The Syndicate’s total audience of unique users?
- We reach over 92,000 [RSS] subscribers across all nine sites. They are predominantly designers, entrepreneurs, developers, writers, photographers, and other creative professionals.

Why did you choose to use sponsored posts with The Syndicate and not ads?
- There are already some fantastic graphical ad networks out there, such as Fusion Ads and The Deck. There was a larger problem to be solved in the space of RSS sponsorships. It’s a great medium that lets advertisers reach the most engaged readers in their RSS feeds.

ABOUT THE BOOK
Next Nature: Nature Changes Along With Us is about nature’s brand image. It shows how our traditional image of nature as static, balanced and harmonic is naïve and up for reconsideration. Where technology and nature are traditionally seen as opposed, they now appear to merge or even trade places. Edited and designed by Koert van Mensvoort and Hendrik-Jan Grievink the book charters the unimaginable, asking what would The World Without Technology be like, to the futuristic idea of Should We Clone Neanderthals?, the fantastic notion of Self-Repairing Architecture and the light-hearted content of McLuhan’s Tweets or the McWorld Map.

‘Although many people have tried to improve our relationship with nature, few have asked the fundamental question: what is nature? Nowadays, children know more corporate logos than bird or tree species. The average Westerner is more concerned with mortgage rates than hurricanes or floods. It seems our notion of nature is radically changing.’ – Koert van Mensvoort

WHAT IS NEXT NATURE?
Today, the human impact on our planet can hardly be underestimated. Climate change, population explosion, electronic networks, synthetic biology – ‘We were here’ echoes all over. Untouched old nature is almost nowhere to be found. At the same time, our technological environment becomes so complex that we start experiencing it as a nature of its own. Conclusion: with our urge to control nature, we cause the rising of a next nature which is dangerous and unpredictable as ever: wild software, genetic surprises, autonomous machinery and splendid black flowers. Find more on the topic on Wikipedia.

BOOK DETAILS
Editors: Koert van Mensvoort and Hendrik-Jan Grievink
Paperback: 472 pages
Publisher: Actar
Language: English
ISBN-10: 8492861533 / ISBN-13: 978-8492861538
Recommended Retail Price: $49,99 / €37,50
Outlets: All good bookshops and online at Amazon.com or www.nextnature.net/book