Introduction
When thinking about data visualization, the images that popped into my head were the infographic designs in publications like the New York Times and Vox. Then on January 27 I attended an online event organized by Design Museum Everywhere featuring two data visualization artists Giorgia Lupi and Nathalie Miebach who talked about the application scenarios of data as physical media in the art and design domains. The discussion enlightened me that there are still a lot of possibilities we can try in data visualization fields. It also aroused my interest in the data visualization works built by physical media. This makes me think to ask:when did the first physical data visualization works emerge? How have physical media been utilized to build information models? What information did the works try to transfer? Through this research, I intend to expand on these three questions, showing a brief picture of physical data visualizations history.
Materials
Trying to center my research on physical material, I filtered through different sources and found an interesting list of physical data visualizations from Nightingale the data visualization community. The list shows well-known works with images and brief descriptions.
As for the visualization tools, I used TimelineJS, an open-source tool created by the Knight Lab. This Javascript-based platform provides a Google Spreadsheet to help you transform data into interactive timelines without applying complex JS and CSS codes by yourself. With the templated operating process, it is easy to present the concise history infographic in a short time.
Methodology
Even though I narrowed the research category to physical media, it is still a huge scope. I decided to focus more on how modern professionals turned various materials into concrete information carriers because their ways of processing data and information are more closely aligned to what I am learning and dealing with now. Hence, except for the first work created in the BC era, I selected eight works from different decades starting in 1862 and ending in 2016.
In terms of visualizing the information, I entered the related information in chronological order into the Google Spreadsheet. Additionally, because the time data did not include exact dates, I had to limit the time data to just show the years of their creation.
To highlight the images of visualization work, I chose to have a dark background for my timeline. Moreover, instead of applying pure black, I tried to find a milder color on the HTML COLOR CODE website. Finally, I decided to use the #2d2d2d as the background of my slides.
Regarding the work narratives, I intended to let the readers put more focus on the pictures, so I just wrote a basic description of the author and materials and purpose of each work. In case readers want to know more about visualizations, I embedded the relevant articles or artists’ introduction URL in the media captions.
Results
After filling out all the data and deciding all the factors like color and font family, I converted the spreadsheet to web and created my Timeline which can be viewed via this link.
Reflection
Firstly, I think my research question can be narrowed down and be more specific. If I have the chance to do it again I may divide the works by the material perspective. For example, I would categorize sculpture and 3D mapping into different groups or even create two different Timelines. Moreover, the different visualizations serve different purposes. Some were created as pure artworks, while others were made with the intention to disseminate information to the public. I think this is also an important variable when I look at data visualization.
Regarding the TimelineJS, undoubtedly it is a convenient tool and really easy to get started. However, its lack of flexibility on customization may result in a loss of interest and audience engagement. If I continue to use it, I will challenge myself by using front-end languages to build my own Timeline.
Overall, through this research, I got the chance to play with this interesting visualization tool, TimelineJS.. Also, and most importantly, this research inspires me to reflect on how far data visualization can go as art, design, or tools but also pushes me to be bolder and to explore the world of data visualization.
Sources
Forrest, J. (2019, March 11) Physical Data Visualizations from
https://medium.com/nightingale/modeling-reality-physical-data-visualizations-68b1021779ab
List of Physical Visualizations and Related Artifacts from http://dataphys.org/list/
ELMalvaney (2010, February 10) Before and After: Mississippi River Basin Model from
https://misspreservation.com/2010/02/10/before-and-after-mississippi-river-basin-model/
Quick, M. (2020, April 21) Making Data Physical Could Help Us Care for the Planet from
https://medium.com/nightingale/making-data-physical-could-help-us-care-for-the-planet-64a3e8c22c29