Data Visualization: Comparison of Storage Media

Data Viz MASTERPIECE

So I really like data visualization. DataIsBeautiful is my favorite subreddit on Redditor. Someone recently posted a link there to a infographic about the 2014 US Federal Budget. It is an AMAZING piece of work.



Here's a high-res version where you can see detail.

Welcome to the Future

One thousand, nine hundred and forty-four years ago: Mount Vesuvius erupted and covered the city of Pompeii in ash, preserving remnants of everyday life. 

A few years ago: Archaeologists digging on Easter Island uncovered the remnants of another archaeological dig from a century ago. 

Seeing this inspired artist Daniel Arsham to wonder artifacts a Vesuvius-like eruption would preserve of contemporary life.

Welcome to the Future was the result.

Creating casts of modern consumer products with materials including ash, steel, obsidian, rock dust, and crystal, he scattered thousands of objects in a 25-foot hole that he dug in the floor of a gallery. His goal was to create a "collapsing of time" like the one he experienced on Easter Island. 

Soft-sell approach in advertising

Mary Stewart says that in the soft-sell approach in advertising, a sensory response is expected rather than a rational one (334). This helped explain a lot about what I find confusing about advertising. So often, I watch an ad and by the end I wonder "And what did that have to do with your product??" I've been expecting the hard-sell approach--the rational connection between the message of the ad and the product. While this shows a lack of understanding on my part about the nature of ads--because I didn't understand the soft-sell approach, it also shows a failure on the part on the advertisers because I didn't connect with the ad.

Film editing to show emotion

Mary Stewart tells about a film-based experiment by early Soviet filmmaker Lev Kulesov, in which they perceived a man's unchanging face as portraying different emotions by mixing it with shots of a bowl of soup, scenes from nature, a baby,, and a dead woman (311). This reminded me of color perception due to contrast. The exact same color is perceived differently depending on what color it is paired with. Like this, in the experiment the man's face, which was the same from shot to shot, with perceived to be show hunger, longing, joy and grief, all based on the image it was paired with.

Listening to your Wi-fi Signal

So there's this guy named Frank Swain whose a writer for New Scientist magazine that recently started using hearing aids. He wondered about using hearing aids for things we can't normally hear as humans, even with perfect hearing. So with the help of a sound artist, he hacked his hearing aids to let him hear nearby wi-fi signals as sound. The signal itself is represented by a clicking noise, with the frequency equal to the proximity. And it's directional - you'll hear it in your right ear if its on your right, for example. And then the network ID is heard as notes, with each letter or number corresponding to a certain note. Here's an example of what it sounds like.

Sound in establishing time and place

Mary Stewart says that sound can create a more convincing atmosphere in time and place (310). What comes to mind most quickly is the use of a saxophone, quickly rising and coming down again more slowly, to establish a love scene. Sometimes, we don't have to see anything else but the wall of a room, but if that particular saxophone sound is heard, we know to expect a love scene.

Pitch of Voice and Characters in Opera

Mary Stewart notes that the higher pitch of most female voices is less threatening than lower male voices, which is why the hero is a tenor and the villain is a baritone in most operas (309). It's worth noting that this principle also extends to the female voices as well. The love interest is usually a soprano, while her trouble-making rival is usually an alto. However, Stewart gets the male parts a little wrong. The villain is usually a bass, not a baritone, but that fact further emphasizes her point. For those wondering, the baritone is usually a side-character that doesn't get any of the big numbers, but is vital to the plot.

Scope and Intensity in The Lord of the Rings

As noted in Mary Stewart's Launching the Imagination, by alternately showing two or more events, in a technique known as crosscutting, a connection can be made between them (303) and that something can be made more intense by observing it closely (302). These concepts were used together to make a battle scene in Lord of the Rings: Return of the King far more intense and violent without being graphic.
In one scene, a human army is riding toward an army of Orcs, and they're attacked and brutally slaughtered. No blood or gore is shown in this scene, but it is made effective by crosscutting with a scene of a king eating. We are shown a close-up of just his open mouth eating chewing. By alternating the two scenes, what is happening to the food in his food becomes a metaphor for the slaughter of the soldiers on the battlefield. The close-up is crucial. A wider shot of the king eating would have seemed boring, lowering the intensity of the scene, or even portrayed apathy on his part, which would have been intense as well but wouldn't have left the audience with the same impression.

Plot duration

According to Mary Stewart's Launching the Imagination, plot duration refers to the time covered by the events of the story, and is especially important to the success of a work. In fiction writing, I've heard this concept as "In Late, Out Early". You focus on the action, whether it be an action or a decision. If you show too much leading up to an event, or too much of the results, the audience will get bored. It's interesting to see the guy who gets caught in the middle of a robbery while he's at the bank depositing money. You probably don't want to see that guy having breakfast that morning, or him going to be that night.

Art as Autobiography

"All artwork is autobiographical" (Stewart, 284). I found this to be a very interesting statement, probably becomes it ring true to me. Many forms of art, especially postmodern art, can seem to have little to do with the artist, or with humanity at all. But it still seems applicable, since autobiography means "a record of one's own life". Regardless of the work they do, an artist is saying something about themselves, because something about their life, their personality, drove them to make that piece.

The Ideal (Photoshopped) You

There's no debating that we see A LOT of photoshop images these days. It seems that every person on a magazine cover has been photoshopped to some degree. But do they wholeheartedly approve of what's been done to their image? That's up for some debate.

That's what I find interesting about the work of Scott Chasserot. He created the ideal version of 14 subjects. How did he decide what was "ideal"? By consulting the subjects themselves. He spent hours in Photoshop with these images, evidently making a wide range of versions. He then showed these versions to the subject of them and determined, by monitoring brain waves, which version got the most positive response.

I find it interesting that every "ideal" varied noticeably from the original. Did no one prefer their real face as what they were most happy with?

Everyday materials in sculpture: Blood

So according to Mary Stewart's Launching the Imagination, some contemporary sculptures are made using blood (263). This seriously made me raise an eyebrow. Then I stepped back and realized that she probably wasn't meaning that blood was the primary material of the sculpture, though something like frozen blood would make a provocative, if not controversial, material choice for a sculpture, albeit a temporary sculpture. She more likely meant that blood has been used as an accent material in sculpture. I would be curious to see such a sculpture.

Roles or Agendas of the New Media Artist/Technologist/Scientist

I've referenced some of the roles of the new media artist in past posts often enough that for reference and for the sake of completeness, I would post the entire list here.

As stated by Professor Doug Gast at WSU Tri-Cities, the 6 roles or agendas of the new media artist/technologist/scientist are as follows:

• Invent new technologies with no utilitarian function or market value
• Instead, for play, curiosity and/or provocation
• Engage in science/technology research at different moments in process
• Identify questions least likely to be asked or tackled
• Invent new ways of investigating themes that arise from research where the tools or concepts turn into installations or performances
• Invent new ways to visualize data and make the results public
• Act as inventors inventing or refining technology and making use of emerging science
• Deconstruct hidden narratives in science and technology as cultural commentary

Cloud Gate: An analysis of design choices

Cloud Gate in Chicago (above left) is a fascinating sculpture, employing multiple unusual design choices. First, the form. In the shape of a kidney bean (Cloud Gate is even called "The Bean" by locals), it is what Mary Stewart describes in Launching the Imagination as an organic form--one that suggests nature or natural forces (181). Second, it has an unusual texture. It is a three-dimensional, curved form whose exterior is entirely composed of a seamless mirror. Mirrors are not typically used in this way, and as Stewart describes, because the material is used in an unexpected way, we reconsider the form and the material (205). Finally, the use of activated space. As Stewart notes, the upper half reflects the city around it, while the lower half pulls viewers into a reflective interior space (201). I've been to Cloud Gate before, and hadn't considered this division in the space. The interior, however, is a fascinating sight. The above right photo is an example of what the viewer may see if they stand inside the interior space and look up. When I took such a picture (not the one above) I found myself reflected in the mirror 4 or 5 times.

Interstellar: Simulating a black hole for the silver screen

So Christopher Nolan's upcoming movie Interstellar includes what consulting physicist Kip Thorne calls the most accurate simulation of a black hole ever created (source article). Simulating the relativistic effects that the black hole has on light is exceptionally involved. Reportedly, some of the individual frames took up to 100 hours to render. Overall, the movie entails 800 terabytes of data (32000 to 40000x the size of average Bluray movie: 20-25 gigabytes). This simulation is an example of new media art because it fulfills multiple roles/agendas of new media art by not only inventing a new way to visualize data and making the results public, but it can also be considered engaging in science research because it led to a discovery about black holes by Kip Thorne.

Propaganda Poster

Digital Photomontages that make M.C. Escher Look Quaint

(Note: The title of this post is a paraphrase of the title of this Wired.com article)

Filip Dujardin is an architectural photographer that takes photos of real buildings and then digitally manipulates them into photomontages of impossible buildings. The results are quite impressive:

Critical Thinking Regarding Color

In Launching the Imagination, Stewart says that critical thinking regarding form, including color choice, can enhance a design and strengthen communication. I was reminded of this while reading an article about the work of a cartographer, Cindy Brewer, who created a website to help map makers improve the readability of their maps through color schemes that are a good fit for the data. Some of the guidelines she provides regarding different types of data:

• Sequential data (values go from low to high, like population density or temperature): Color scheme that progresses from light to dark. Never use rainbow colors for this!
• Deviation from an average: A diverging color scheme, with for example reds at one end and blues at the other
• Different categories (like religions or ethnicities): Up to 12 colors that are easily distinguishable, fewer is better. After about 7, it can get really hard to tell them apart

Triptych

EDS stands for Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a genetic disorder where the body creates faulty collagen, the basic building block of the body. There are different types of EDS with differing symptoms, but the joints are the most commonly affected part of the body. Some of the symptoms of the Classical Type, represented in this triptych, include unstable, overly flexible joints--sometimes bad enough that the person is uncontrollable double-jointed and has to wear braces on each finger to keep the fingers from bending backwards--frequent joint dislocation, easily bruised and torn skin, and chronic pain. The colors used represent the colors of various EDS awareness ribbons.

Monolitt

Monolitt is a really interesting data visualization piece. It's a waist-high monument that oozes paint according the general sentiment of the tweets made in the Oslo, Norway area where the monument is located (using the spectra of calm vs excited and positive vs negative). As is said in a recent Wired article, in represents social media, a new phenomenon, with paint, one of art's most enduring materials.

Interdisciplinary art

Mary Stewart says that a creative person can make more connections if they have a wide range of interests. This definitely applies to me! When I took a interest evaluation as part of a career assessment, the counselor interpreting the results said he had never seen results quite like mine, because I had very high scores in multiple of the six interest areas. (One result that stands out head and shoulders above the rest is more typical).
Something I'd love to do, but less the ability/resources to do, would be to create a piece of art based on a genetic algorithm. Genetic algorithms--a process also created by interdisciplinary interest--combines computer coding with a form of evolution. It creates possible solutions to a problem as a string of characters, similar to DNA, tests each one regarding how good a solution it is, and then mates usually the two best results, recombining them and allowing random mutation. This is usually used for designing things such as antennas, mirrors for solar collectors, scheduling software.

Photo Restoration: New medium meets old medium

So I realized the other day that I could use Photoshop could restore old family photos. Over time, photos can get damaged, with creases, scratches and dust. Fortunately, photoshop can be used to remove these blemishes to digitally restore the photo to its former glory. So I've been working on touching up photos of my ancestors. Below is a photo of my great-grandmother as a child, taken in the late 1870s to early 1880s. Since this was a tin type photo, captured with a digital camera and editing in Photoshop, this is great example of an old medium intersecting with a new medium.

The retouching isn't perfect. There are still plenty flaws in it. However, such fixes are beyond my skill in Photoshop and, given how old and damaged this photo is, possibly beyond what it is possible while still preserving the original photo.

Photomontage: Twenty-Two Thousand

This is a time-lapse photomontage of aerial photos of West Pasco, WA. The photos were obtained by making screen captures of satellite views of the area in Google Earth, with the older photos obtained using the Historical Imagery tool. The photos were taken with the center on GPS coordinates 46º15’53.35”N 119º11’44.34”W, and viewed from an elevation of 22,482 feet (hence the name of the piece). Satellite views were used from a period ranging from 1996 (the oldest available) to 2013 (the most recent).

I created this time-lapse because I wanted to show the development of the Tri-Cities, WA over time. Because a photo taken in 1996 was the oldest available, I wanted to choose a portion of the Tri-Cities that has had a significant amount of change and knew that a lot of housing construction is going in West Pasco right now, so I chose to focus my “photography” there. Taking small sections of the twenty aerial views available, I pieced them together into a montage that formed a map of the growth. Excluding portions of the maps to eliminate control features and other marks on the images that were artifacts that resulted from taking screen captures from Google Earth left an irregular border to the montage, which I accentuated with the placement of sections to create a patchy design.  To balance the whitespace around the image, I left some sections of whitespace near the center of the image. I also added a small section of whitespace near the lower left corner to balance out the heavily dark portion of the image created by the Columbia River.

This was actually the second attempt I made of a photomontage of this area. Here is first one, which used the 1996 view as a background, with sections of the most recent view, along with a few sections from the period in between to show the development of a few areas.

Emphasis Through Contrast in Color

As noted in Mary Stewart's Launching the Imagination, contrasting color can create emphasis, with the dominant color becoming the standard, and other colors becoming the exception (86). I learned this while working on a timelapse photomontage project. I use aerial photos of a particular area over 18 years of urban development. The oldest photo provides a kind of background because it is in black and white, with patches of more recent photos being in color (this was not an aesthetic choice--this was how the aerial photos were taken). In the original photos, however, there was insufficient contrast. The color photos had a sufficient amount of gray that it was difficult to distinguish between black and white vs color, therefore making it difficult to distinguish older from more recent. I ended up darkening the black and white portions and lightening the color portions. to make greater contrast between the two.

Face-Swapping Mirror

Digital artist Kyle McDonald has a new project (Wired.com is a great source for new media art, I'm discovering!) involving two mirrors place in different galleries. Each is a digital mirror, scans your facial expression and the tilt of your head, and replaces it with a picture of someone else with the same expression and posture from a database of pictures of people that have stood in front of the mirrors. It's an attempt to bring to real life the thought that someone, somewhere is making the same expression as you right then. And if I'm understanding correctly, the two digital mirrors share the database, so there's a strong chance you'll be seeing the face of someone that stood in front of the other.
The kicker in all this is where the two mirrors are placed: one is in Japan, the other Korea.
As the video below points out, these two countries have had a complicated relationship with each other. Perhaps this project is an attempt to help the populations of the two countries feel a little closer together.

[Bill Nye Voice] QUILTS! OF SCIENCE!

"Artists and scientists are not that different," artist Anna Von Mertens says, "We're in our own little worlds grinding away at ideas." The field of new media art would definitely agree with Anna, which doesn't separate artist from scientist. According to Professor Doug Gast at Washington State University, Tri-Cities, one of the roles of the new media artist is to invent new ways to visualize data and make the results public. Anna has done so with her quilts, incorporating scientific phenomena into them, such as a nuclear detonation:

The black quilt shows a side-view of a nuclear bomb blast, while the white view shows a top view. The article linked above describes her process:

She designs her first patterns on the computer, sometimes drafting them from scratch. Once that’s complete, she uses a projector to draw the pattern onto the fabric. “I transfer each line by hand, with chalk. I chalk out my stitch pattern onto the piece. If the piece happens to include color, I hand dye it too,” she said.

Other quilts have included the starfield during significant historical events (such as September 11, 2001), ocean currents, the Aurora Borealis, and tree rings.

Color Methods

Just a little thought here. I found it interesting while doing the reading this week that the primary colors of the subtractive color system are secondary colors of the additive color system. And also interesting that this isn't the case in reverse. I don't know if there's a reason for this, or if there's a historical explanation to this. It's just something that caught my attention.

Waterlogged

According to a recent Wired.com article, photographer Matthew Brandt has a recent project soon to be released as book of photos created with an interesting approach. He took pictures of lakes and then, after the photos are printed, he soaks them for days to weeks in water that came from the lake in the picture, causing the inks in the print to degrade. The results can be quite impressive, such as this photo that looks like it's on fire:

Photography is old media, but these have a novel production process, so they might be considered new media. Either way, I think it looks pretty awesome.

Flocks of Photoshopping

So recent article in Wired.com Shaun Kardinal has released a recent project that I think is pretty cool. He's photoshopped flocks birds into patterns that, while unnatural, as amazing looking. The patterns include a spiral, triangles, a square, as well as this circle:



This is new media art in a couple different ways. In addition to being photoshopped, the opening of this piece wasn't a typical art opening, but rather a digital opening on Instagram. He released a photo every ten minutes on June 5 between 6 and 8 p.m.

Illusion of Space

In Mary Stewart's "Launching the Imagination", during the discussion of texture of space, Douglas Smith's No Turning shows how texture and linear perspective are combined to produce an illusion of space, showing a view looking down on a truck in an alleyway in which the truck is trapped. The effect is generated by having the bricks diminish in size in the image as the distance increased (p. 25). I love when this effect is used, and have seen it used to impressive effect. In Salt Lake City, Utah LDS Temple, this same illusion was used to make the building appear taller when viewed from the ground. Because we expect to see smaller detail as something gets farther away, the various levels of the 222-foot building's exterior were made with finer detail the higher up the building you go to make the building appear taller than it actually is.

Self-Portrait

A self-portrait of myself with backdrop images representative of the genres of fiction that I enjoy writing, as well as being images from works of which I am a fan. On the left is Minas Tirith from Lord of the Rings, representing the fantasy genre. On the right is the titular city from Stargate: Atlantis, representing the science fiction genre. The text is an original statement from me,