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A typical screen display: on the left, artist’s photographs (1, 2) are overlaid with shells showing the effect of ocean acidification (3). Also overlaid is a visualization of global ocean surface tempera- tures focused on the Arctic (4).
Source publication
Climate science is conveyed via visualization of a climate model – an abstraction that removes the science from the research field activity that forms the basis for constructing the model. Climate Prisms: The Arctic is about bridging the distance between the physical world and the scientific visualization through multiple approachable modalities pu...
Context in source publication
Citations
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a surge of information visualizations that aim to increase our scientific understanding and communicate about the ongoing health crisis with the general public. In this time, there has also been significant use of data visualization language in artefacts from online communities that provide commentary on the pandemic and create meaning through participatory digital culture. Using a qualitative approach, this paper examines over 300 memes collected from a public social media group targeted to young adults in the United States that uses the language of data visualization to discuss topics related to COVID-19. We outline four main ways that data visualization language is used in these memes-as a coarse indicator, as a visual analogy, as an opportunity for augmentation with emotion or interpretation, and as a visual pun-as well as two ways that memes leverage traditional and emerging approaches in the information visualization community. We describe the context in which these memes are socially created and interpreted in light of the political nature of online spaces and connect this work to ongoing research on participation, emotion, and embodiment in information visualization. These results aim to start a conversation about the use of data visualization language in digital culture and more casual networked environments beyond official channels.
Over the last decade growing amounts of government data have been made available in an attempt to increase transparency and civic participation, but it is unclear if this data serves non-expert communities due to gaps in access and the technical knowledge needed to interpret this “open” data. We conducted a two-year design study focused on the creation of a community-based data display using the United States Environmental Protection Agency data on water permit violations by oil storage facilities on the Chelsea Creek in Massachusetts to explore whether situated data physicalization and Participatory Action Research could support meaningful engagement with open data. We selected this data as it is of interest to local groups and available online, yet remains largely invisible and inaccessible to the Chelsea community. The resulting installation, Chemicals in the Creek, responds to the call for community-engaged visualization processes and provides an application of situated methods of data representation. It proposes event-centered and power-aware modes of engagement using contextual and embodied data representations. The design of Chemicals in the Creek is grounded in interactive workshops and we analyze it through event observation, interviews, and community outcomes. We reflect on the role of community engaged research in the Information Visualization community relative to recent conversations on new approaches to design studies and evaluation.
