Visualizar symposium

Medialab Prado
Plaza de las Letras, C/ Alameda, 15
Madrid

At the start of the 21st century, the generation of endless masses of data has become one of the primary scientific, economic, and social activities. Those masses of data are such vast, complex structures that perhaps the best way to make everyone understand the relations and see the meaningful patterns hidden among them is not to use words. Maps, signage, and statistical graphs have been traditional ways of showing the relationship among specific items visually. However, now that we generate and gather much more data practically in real time, we need systems that represent them dynamically and the answers they hide. Thus, the art and science of data visualization was born.

Data visualization is a cross-discipline which uses the vast communicative power of images to offer a comprehensible explanation of the relationship among meaning, cause, and dependence that can be found among large abstract masses of information generated by scientific and social processes. Arising from the field of science two decades ago, InfoVis and DataVis combined strategies and techniques from statistics, graphic design and interaction and computer analysis to create a new communication model more suitable for clarification in the emerging Age of Complexity.

[size=13]Enter Visualizar Forum [/size]http://forommm.intermediae.es/viewforum.php?id=1

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[size=15]PROGRAMME[/size]

[size=13]12 de noviembre[/size]

10:30 - 14:00 Presentation of selected papers
· Sheila Pontis - La historia de la esquemática en la visualización de datos
· Manuel Sánchez-Gestido - Information Visualization and Structured Knowledge
· Daniel Rojas - Acerca de la visualización topológica de redes

17:00 José Luis de Vicente: VISUALIZAR presentation

18:15 Ben Fry: Computational Information Design

19:30 Santiago Ortiz y Andrés Ortiz (Bestiario): presentation of Bestiario projects

[size=13]
13 de noviembre[/size]

10:30 - 14:00 Presentation of selected papers

· Paloma López - Investigación para la visualización experimental interactiva de conocimientos etimológicos
· Domenico di Siena - Imaginario
· Marcela Alejandra González - Information tools for Ethical Consumers
· M Luz Congosto - Barriblog

17:00 Ramon Guardans: From the Nippur School to EMEP: 4,000 years of data representation

18:15 Mark Hansen
19:30 Fernanda Viégas: Many Eyes: Democratizing Visualization

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[size=15]PARTICIPANTS[/size]

Benjamin Fry: Computational Information Design
The ability to collect and store data continues to increase, but our ability to understand it remains unchanged. In an attempt to gain better understanding of data, fields such as information visualization, data mining and graphic design are employed, each solving an isolated part of the specific problem, but failing in a broader sense: there are too many unsolved problems in the visualization of complex data. As a solution, I propose that the individual fields be brought together as part of a single process that I call Computational Information Design. I'll be showing examples of work developed as part of my Ph.D. dissertation, and as a researcher at the Eli & Edyth Broad Institute of MIT & Harvard addressing the visualization genetic data.

Bestiario: Bestiario Proyect Presentation
For two years now, Bestiario has been developing interactive information spaces. An interactive information space is a digital environment where information can be accessed and transformed.
More than just visualizing, the aim is to generate a spatial and interactive experience. And more than just information, the goal is knowledge. What turns data into information is the relational structure between them. And what turns information into knowledge depends on how the information relates to people.
Bestiario works in both relational contexts. For the first, it develops data management infrastructure technologies primarily aimed at handling networks. For the second, it develops interaction technologies: browsable, visual spatial metaphors. We will demonstrate aspects of both types of technologies and how they can be structured. www.bestiario.org

Ramón Guardans: From the Nippur School to EMEP: 4,000 years of data representation
The clay tablets unearthed in Nippur and recently published by C. Proust constitute an extraordinary example of mathematical texts from over 4,000 years ago, represented on clay. From studying these representations, information can be gleaned about their authors’ mathematical knowledge and learning, reading, and calculation procedures.
The models of long-range transmission of air pollutants (www.emep.int) are examples of data representation of massive calculations based on emissions data and large-scale meteorological measurements.
These examples help us to consider the problem of representing knowledge, and the objects and processes involved in the task.

Mark Hansen
Es profesor de estadística de UCLA y miembro del departamento de Media Art de esta universidad. Sus colaboraciones con Ben Rubin en proyectos como "Listening Post" son algunos de los ejemplosmás poderosos del uso de las técnicas de minado de datos en el contexto de las artes digitales.

Fernanda Viégas: Many Eyes: Democratizing Visualization
Data visualization has historically been accessible only to the elite in academia, business, and government. But in recent years web-based visualizations–ranging from political art projects to news stories–have reached audiences of millions. Unfortunately, while lay users can view many sophisticated visualizations, they have few ways to create them. In order to "democratize" visualization, we have built Many Eyes, a web site where people may upload their own data, create interactive visualizations, and carry on conversations. The goal is to foster a social style of data analysis in which visualizations serve not only as a discovery tool for individuals but also as a means to spur discussion and collaboration. This talk will provide an overview of Many Eyes, patterns of usage on the site, and what those patterns suggest about the future of visualization.