2009 has been a very exciting year,
We visualized poverty, we investigated three some relationships, we understood the meaning of fuzzy, we explored the power of halftone, we folded polyhedrons, we start to twitter, we discussed about uncertainty, turtles, Knowledge Visualization, casual loops and social audits, sustainability and ecological impacts; we addressed urban school needs, we followed student in design schools, we connected design research hubs, we drew map of future, we started a quotation wall, we argued (a lot) we agreed (sometimes) we did our best (almost always); someone went to new Orleans, someone to Paris, someone to Venice, someone to Naples, someone to Como, someone to Korea. Someone is gone and now lives far away, someone will come back. If we draw a map, it will be quite dense, of course.

Now the 2010 has started and I wish everyone an exciting and challenging year again; I wish you be brave and  question all the problems you will face, I wish you never stop till you feel it is good enough, I wish you find a way of lighten difficult situations and even more to fully enjoy the pleasant ones, i wish you will keep on telling amazing stories. happy 2010!

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.

“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.

Density design joined the twitter community!
We won’t use any Plug-in to upload our posts, we care for handmade processes.
We won’t twit too frequently, we prefer low rhythms.
We will always answer your replies, we love to discuss and networking.
We will twit all the blog’s contents and even more, we prefer addition to subtraction.
We will let you know what our people are doing, we value the same the parts and the whole.
We will never use twitter as a marketing tool, we believe in the power of opinion.

Ops! That’s more than 140 characters…

Most of the infographics produced for the magazine can be seen here. I like especially those called “Letteratura grafica”, a visual synthesis of classic oeuvres. They reminds me the work done by Giada Coppi in our course, and the thesys produced with the tutorship of Prof. Marco Maiocchi. The title of the thesys – discussed during the 2004/05 academic year – is “From words to images: graphic mapping of narrative structures”, in Italian: “Dalla parola all’immagine : la mappatura grafica di strutture narrative” (I hope my traslation is correct!). Also in our Density Design course we deal since some years with narrative structures, like the movies Memento and - just done this year – Jules and Jim. The non-linear and unpredictable structure of these movies is a good base for approcahing complexity and the construction of visual models.

Coming back to Francesco, Luca and their awards, well done guys!

flickr

Just used in a class about interactivity and engagement (and sneaking a dose of sustainability). Thanks folks.

Who are the poor? Poverty is neither a number nor an index. It cannot be reduced to a line that divides those who are above and those who are below, establishing a unique space for social exclusion. Poverty is a multidimensional and complex phenomenon. Its reduction to a fragmented representation could generate distorted visions of the phenomenon and allow ineffective or counterproductive interventions.

Communication design addresses semiotics, statistics and social sciences methods to investigates how diagrammatic devices could help in preserving the complexity of the phenomenon and in communicating it. The aim is to build up the conditions for more aware interventions.
Six dimensions of the poverty phenomenon were analyzed, challenging the students ability in the use of different visual tools and modes, to build a shared understanding between different stakeholders.

The Open Day is an opportunity to (re)connect the different dimensions and to (re)build the big picture of poverty.

As the Steelers and Cardinals battled on the field, Twitter users across the nation pecked out a steady stream of “tweets.” The map shows the location and frequency of commonly used words in Super Bowl related messages.