Last November Density Design has been invited by the School of Art and Architecture of Stockholm to organize a workshop of data visualization with the student of a master. They were working on the same topic, the city of Pune in India, trying to understand how to visualize some data about the city.

Students had different background studies, none of them was a graphic designer, mostly architects and artists, so data visualization was a challenge for them all.

Groups had different themes to work on about Pune, different questions to be answered “graphically”:
- How the city of Pune is Green? analyzing the environmental changes of the city,
- How accessible is Pune? exploring the ways of transportation from/to Pune,
- How the IT technology affects the life of the citizens? showing why Pune is the IT Capital of India,
- What is growing in Pune? trying to understand how urban landscape is changing through the city-expansion.

During our week in Stockholm we had some design talks with the students, trying to understand the graphic issues linked with their data about the city of Pune. They had a week to produce a poster, so it has been a nice challenge for everybody. All groups produced very interesting visualizations, if we consider that they had no experience with graphic languages, and especially with information design.

The listener (in fables or music) or the observer (in cinema and theater) plays a fundamental role in the narration process. The narrator evokes whereas the observer interprets through his imaginary. The more qualitative is the narrator evocation, the more the observer becomes co-author of the story.

In the visualization of complex networks, the designer should use a narrative mode of though, giving to the audience a good story more than a sound argument. As the movie director, the designer aim to choose the visualization that more preserves the complexity of the environment. As a result he takes a political stance: he directs actors (the elements of a system), he decides the light design (the choice of the elements to visualize), the set designs (the imagery to evoke), the different optical lens (the power of focusing) and most important, the critical point of view of the camera (intentionality).

We will present our research in the visualization of complex systems. The paper “Tell them anything but the truth: they will find their own. How we visualize the map of the future with respect to the audience of our story” focuses on the emerging need for a narrative approach for the understanding of complex networks. We consider narrations as tools with the paramount function of myths <to find a shape, a form, in the turmoil of human experience>.

We are proud to present it at the Arts | Humanities | Complex Networks — a Leonardo satellite symposium at NetSci 2010 taking place at BarabásiLab — Center for Complex Network Research, Northeastern University in Boston, MA, on Monday, May 10, 2010.

See you there!

This is a map of Europe as you’ve never seen it. It shows how people in the 27 EU states perceive the impact of the internet and mobile phones on their lives – and then contrasts this with their actual penetration in each country. We wanted to explore new ways to visualize such complex data. So we worked with a statistics team, under Marco Fattore, to crunch data from a 2008 Eurobarometer survey of 27,000 people. The result is this contour map, which makes use of the isobars of traditional cartography. Each panel above refers to a specific question in the survey. The higher a country, the more its citizens say the technology matters. The cartogram shows the tech’s actual penetration. A high penetration of technology doesn’t mean people see a real benefit in using it, the way we see the world is changing as more data is available. We wanted to show a new way to look at geography as Europe’s landscape gets reshaped.

THE EUROBAROMETER SURVEY LAST SEPTEMBER ASKED 27,000 EUROPEANS THESE QUESTIONS: (Numbers relate to the panels on the main map):

1 Has the internet improved how you do your job?
2 Has using a mobile phone helped in your work?
3 Has the internet made you more informed about current issues?
4 Has using a mobile phone helped you to be more informed?
5 Has the internet improved your opportunity to share views/access culture?
6 Have mobile phones helped you to share ideas and content such as photos with others?
7 Has the internet improved how you pursue your hobbies?
8 Have mobile phones helped you better manage your leisure time?
9 Has the internet improved your relationships with family and friends?
10 Have mobile phones helped you keep in contact with family and friends?

“Penetration” is calculated from the percentages of households and businesses with broadband access; and the percentage of households with access to the internet via PC, digital TV and mobile device.

Credits

Paolo Ciuccarelli (Scientific Responsible)
Marco Fattore (Assistant Professor, Faculty of Statistics – data analysis)
Donato Ricci (creative direction Project Coordination)
Michele Mauri, Giorgio Caviglia (coding)
Luca Masud (art direction)
Lorenzo Fernandez, Mario Porpora (designer)

October 9th 2009
10.00-13.00
International week of Design
PAN – Palazzo delle Arti di Napoli

“L’utente fantasma”

“Ghost user”

Next month i’ll take part to a conference in Naples, during the International Week of Design organized by AIAP, about the “Ghost user”, concerning the forgotten role of the final user of any design project and its relationship with design process.
I will discuss it together with the semiologist Antonio Perri and some graphic designers, like Silvia Sfligiotti, Max Gaeta and Carlotta Latessa.
My intervention will concern, in particular, the gap between some information design artifacts, such as diagrams, maps and signages, and the final user to whom the projects are meant. The basic statement is always the same: information design should show complexity of the world but making it understandable, clear and ‘readable’.
Sometimes design artifacts are a projection of the designer’s ego, in a sort of narcissistic, self centered vision of projects, disregarding the user needs; some others design processes aren’t even taken into consideration, designers give the goal of understanding for granted: the results are incomprehensible artifacts, where communication isn’t assured, leading to stress, lack of self-estimate, or even to dangerous situations.
Therefore the over mentioned gap is a complex element itself, which need at list to be analyzed.

This and much more in Naples.

http://www.aiap.it/documenti/11484/148

We have been officially invited to present the CityMurmur project at the Emerging Technologies conference at SIGGRAPH09. Citymumur NewOrleans will be launch on the 3rd of August on the occasion of the first day of the conference.

For those who have never heard anything about the SIGGRAPH (short for Special Interest Group on GRAPHics and Interactive Techniques), here is a short description: now in its 36th year, the SIGGRAPH conference is the premier international event on computer graphics and interactive techniques. SIGGRAPH 2009 is expected to draw an estimated 25,000 professionals from five continents to New Orleans, Louisiana. The SIGGRAPH conference attracts the most respected technical and creative people from all over planet Earth. The SIGGRAPH community includes people everywhere who are excited by research, science, art, animation, gaming, interactivity, education, and the web. The SIGGRAPH conference and exhibition is a five-day interdisciplinary educational experience including a three-day commercial exhibition that attracts hundreds of exhibitors from around the world. SIGGRAPH is widely recognized as the most prestigious forum for the publication of computer graphics research. In addition to SIGGRAPH’s leading-edge technical program, the conference’s installations provide close-up views of the latest in digital art, emerging technologies, and hands-on opportunities for creative collaboration.

But what people told me about it? The first time I heard about SIGGRAPH was described as the Woodstock of computer graphics and interactive techniques and I thought about half naked people interacting with muddy computers; then someone said it was the dream of lot of digital kids, where everything is possible and everything is future and in that Woodstock vision I added genius little kids playing with futuristic devices; then I heard there were someone giving relief massages to people over working on computers and this idea completed the picture with awesome transhuman masseuses.
Maybe this vision is a little too much, but I don’t care and to free myself from fears I booked a room in a very nice hotel with a swimming pool on the roof, to keep on feeling on top of the world!

We keep you updated on this adventure, be back about CityMurmur New Orleans soon.

Last Monday the Fifth Edition of Frontiers of Interaction took place in Rome, confirming itself as one of the most interesting event in the panorama of interaction design. A rich schedule -full of people and thoughts to share- and a wonderful location -the Aquario Romano- to talk about how technologies are changing our life.

The issue of complexity turned out as one of the frontiers that have to be explored. A first moment of reflection on that topic was given by Daniele Galiffa, CEO and co-founder of VISup, teaching assistant at Density Design Lab in 2004: he introduced the importance of using visualization methods in order to describe the complexity that is part of interaction design and information technology projects.

The tools and techniques coming from the world of information visualization can be adopted for analyzing, designing and also explaining complex phenomena such as a digital eco-system, taking advantage from the power of visualization to facilitate the observation, the ideation and the comprehension.

These thoughts became more tangible for the audience through the contribution of Andrea Vaccari, a research associate at the MIT SENSEable City Laboratory, who presented several techniques they’ve developed for giving visibility to social activities.

Again the visualization turns out as a basic support for the description of complex phenomena, augmented by the power of computer technology. They create software able to record and show data that are so complex that humans can hardly control and express.

Their use of technology together with the excellent control of the visual languages and the visual qualities conveying information is of course something that overcomes the frontiers.

http://www.cartografareilpresente.org

http://www.cartografareilpresente.org/spip.php?page=cartes&lang=it

http://www.france-bologna.it
http://www.dds.unibo.it

SIMPOSIO “GEOPOLITICA E MIGRAZIONI”

Complesso di San Giovanni in Monte, Aula Prodi, Piazza San Giovanni in
Monte 2, Bologna. Sabato 30 maggio, ore 10

Saluti: Carla Giovannini (Preside della Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia
dell’Università di Bologna), Alberto De Bernardi (Direttore del
Dipartimento di Discipline Storiche dell’Università di Bologna)

Interventi: Catherine de Wenden (Centre d’études et de Recherches
Internationales, CNRS/Sciences Po), Gigi Roggero (Università di Bologna),
Olivier Clochard (rete Migreurop), Caroline Intrand (associazione Médecins
du Monde)

Presiede: Carlo Galli (Presidente del Comitato Internazionale di Bologna
per la Cartografia e l’Analisi del Mondo Contemporaneo)

“Beauty will save the world”
Feodor Dostoevskij, The idiot, 1868-69

“If anything can save us: that will be beauty!”
Ettore Sottsass, 2001

In a time in which World and Design are concentrated on reflections on the major issues of sustainability, energy and globalization Domus Academy’s international students and Alumni wonder about the courage and the innocence needed to measure themselves with a so sublime and yet so present pursuit as the Search for Beauty.
Received quotes are ingredients of/for a graphic representation, that synthesize emerging terms and how them are related to the geographical origin of thoughts, showing how peculiarities of local culture impacts on personal interpretation of beauty.

The panel has been on show at That’s Design 2009, in the occasion of Salone del Mobile, the biggest event here in Milano concerning Design in all its multiple identities!

]]> http://www.densitydesign.org/2009/04/29/changing-with-beauty/feed/ 0 http://www.densitydesign.org/2009/04/27/information-design-conference-2009/ http://www.densitydesign.org/2009/04/27/information-design-conference-2009/#comments Mon, 27 Apr 2009 21:26:42 +0000 luciapiglia http://www.densitydesign.org/?p=1071

After the Density design course I start a thesis about form design and the relation between people, bureucratic structure and information. In the beginning of April I went to London to partecipate at the information design conference 2009, held in Greenwich.
Not only the visualization of complex data, but also the simplification of complex informations to act in daily life: documents, forms, wayfinding, health information, instruction and explanation,  are some of the topics discussed.
Contributions emphasized the multidisciplinarity of information design, by gathering linguists, psychologists, specialized authors, communication designers: two days of debates and meeting in a confortable exchange mood.
Organizers Paul Stiff and Rob Waller of the Reading  simplification centre were among the speakers.
An interesting contribution with regard to Inclusive Design came from Colette Jeffrey, who presented as an example the legible london project and future applications of information-inclusive-design.
Max Gadney, (Commissioning Executive in BBC Vision)  illustrated some information graphic projects. He also speaks about sharing research in the information designer community.
Borries Schwesinger, author of “Formulare gestalten”, presented a comparative analysis of online services offered by European governments: they complicate life and probablty we have to be patient.
Boag Associates, Text Matters and Studio Lift, all dealing with document design, were attending.
Regarding complex system mapping and data visualization, the next upcoming meeting will be the DD4D (Data Design for Decision) Conference in Paris in June.