list 01: data visualization, infographics, ted
Data visualization or data visualisation is the creation and study of the visual representation of data, meaning “information that has been abstracted in some schematic form, including attributes or variables for the units of information”.
Information graphics or infographics are graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge intended to present complex information quickly and clearly. They can improve cognition by utilizing graphics to enhance the human visual system’s ability to see patterns and trends. The process of creating infographics can be referred to as data visualization, information design, or information architecture.
01/ Ursus Wehrli shares his vision for a cleaner, more organized, tidier form of art – by deconstructing the paintings of modern masters into their component pieces, sorted by color and size.
02/ Have you played with Google Labs’ NGram Viewer? It’s an addicting tool that lets you search for words and ideas in a database of 5 million books from across centuries. Erez Lieberman Aiden and Jean-Baptiste Michel show us how it works, and a few of the surprising things we can learn from 500 billion words.
03/ SXSWi, technologist JP Rangaswami muses on our relationship to information and offers a surprising and sharp insight: we treat it like food.
04/ Sarah Williams is a pioneer of using mapping and data visualization techniques to uncover hidden and often surprising facts about the contemporary city. Her work exposes social ills in desperate need of design solutions. With expertise spanning the representation of digital information, mapping, ecological design and urban planning, her research focuses on the intersection of technology and the urban realm, with a particular focus on using mobile computing to help better understand urban spaces.
05/ Amy Hillier: Why does the place of our birth and child rearing influence the amount of opportunities available to us as adults? Is there something we can do about this? If we could trace our experiences using modern mapping technologies - like GIS, GPS, LiDAR and others - to better understand our surroundings, our history and our future, what would be revealed? Hillier’s talk discusses how Augmented Reality technologies can be used to bridge geographic disparities and facilitate neighborhood change, allowing residents to redefine their space. Gamifying neighborhoods can engage kids with activities that lead to personal discovery, while also providing data on what Hillier calls “opportunity-shed analysis.”
06/ Miriah Meyer is a computer scientist who is changing the way other scientists see the world of data. As a postdoctoral research fellow in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University, Miriah is a pioneer in the emerging field of visualization, which uses graphic computer representations to help scientists envision, manage and interact with large quantities of complex data in ways that would otherwise be impossible. Working closely with research scientists, Miriah’s interactive tools now pinpoint patterns and trends.
07/ David Bramwell is the man behind Brighton’s Cheeky Guide and the long running Catalyst Club. He is a reader, writer, thinker, and performer, and is preoccupied by the best methods to bring about social cohesion and sharing across our cities.
08/ Nick Stanhope shares with the audience his recent project – Historypin, which has been developed by We Are What We Do, in partnership with Google. Historypin is a way for millions of people to come together, from across different generations, cultures and places, to share small glimpses of the past and to build up the huge story of human history through a well-known medium – picture.
09/ George MacKerron is a PhD researcher at the London School of Economics & Political Science. His work focuses on wellbeing, happiness, and how this relates to our immediate environment.
10/ Thad Roberts reveals a theory that could prove to be the key in simplification of the complexities of quantum mechanics, space, and time.
& #
Mathematics and sex are deeply intertwined. From using mathematics to reveal patterns in our sex lives, to using sex to prime our brain for certain types of problems, to understanding them both in terms of the evolutionary roots of our brain, Dr Clio Cresswell shares her insight into it all.