THE QUEST FOR BEAUTIFUL DATA
For as long as humans have collected data, they been on a quest to present it better. Because a picture can be worth millions of words, the way we visualize data helps us to not only understand it better, but to enjoy it more.
Now we’ve got Big Data to contend with. Each day, we’re producing 2.5 quintillion bytes of data — and 90 percent of the data in existence was created within the past couple years. Data visualizations — such as video progressions, infographics, and graphic arts — can make enormous data sets easy to parse.
And now, because new technologies are enabling us to see Big Data in new ways, data visualization has become an artform. In fact, now we are beginning to see what mathematicians and scientists know deep in their hearts -- the data itself is beautiful.
Today, we are exploring the quests of three cutting edge artists who render data visualizations that are eminently frameable.
In his TED talk, David McCandeless explains how the graphics generated by data facilitates our understanding.
“Visualizing information so that we can see the patterns and connections that matter and then designing that information so it makes more sense, or it tells a story, or allows us to focus only on the information that’s important,” says McCandeless.
In his book, “Information is Beautiful
“I would say that data is the new soil. Because for me, it feels like a fertile, creative medium. Over the years, online, we’ve laid down a huge amount of information and data, and we irrigate it with networks and connectivity,” says McCandeless.
According to Phil Simon’s new book The Visual Organization: Data Visualization, Big Data, and the Quest for Better Decisions, it is data visualization that allows Big Data to unleash its true impact.
AARON KOBLIN
Aaron Koblin’s quest is to tell visual stories with data. He seeks to use the visualization and recontextualization of raw data to tell compelling narratives about modern life. Koblin is the Creative Director of the Data Arts Team for Google.
One of the most revealing and simultaneously captivatingly beautiful of Koblin’s attempts to visualize data is his work “Flight Patterns,” a video that uses data from the Federal Aviation Administration to illustrate airplane flight. Different colors are coded to the 573 different types of airplanes that traveled through North America, totaling over 205,000 flights, in just a single day in August 2010.
As time passes, it is easy because of his superb visuals to see the ebb and flow of international traffic, as well as the early morning and late night business flights. The piece makes clear and compelling the data on air travel, and uses it to make something new and revealing.
Koblin’s work is part of the "Talk to Me" exhibit at MOMA from 5.18.2014-11.07.2014
JENNY ODELL
Some data, like the huge images databases of Google Earth, is nearly impossible to represent in a concise way. But there are small sections of that data that can be analyzed to show the beauty of the whole.
Artist Jenny Odell’s quest is to curate information into a form that is easily viewable and visually beautiful.
“Satellite Landscapes,” is one of the most interesting of Odell’s series. In it, she reveals the beauty of Google Earth’s power plants, airports, train stations, and naval yards, showing us what she wants us to see from the massive amount available to us.
She combs through miles of Google Earth’s maps, looking for images and curating for beauty. “People value that because they are overwhelmed. It’s less about creating something new, but rendering something useful, maybe beautiful.” she said in an interview with Tech Page One.
Jenny Odell is a Bay Area native/captive with an MFA in Design from the San Francisco Art Institute and a BA in English Literature from UC Berkeley. Her work has been featured at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the Google Headquarters, and Les Rencontres D'Arles in France. It's also turned up in TIME Magazine, The Atlantic, The Economist, Wired, the NPR Picture Show, Pop-up Magazine, Rhizome, Guernica, and ESPN Magazine.
As a recipient of the San Francisco Arts Commission individual artist grant, she is working on a new large-scale body of work to be exhibited in San Francisco in November 2014. She is currently a lecturer at Stanford University and lives in San Francisco.
JASON DAVIES
Jason Davies not only makes data appear beautiful, but his very method of visualization is beautiful in and of itself.
The London-based artist says that his work is intended specifically to illustrate the beauty of Voronoi diagrams in spherical space.
Voronoi diagrams divide space into regions -- divisions of a space into regions. These regions are made by the placement of points on the diagram, all area closer to one point than any other will fall under that points region.
Davies uses this method to show some interesting information about the way borders are drawn. Rather than using culture or politics, Davies’ Voronoi diagrams show how regions would be divided according proximities to city capitals or major airports.
The results show the beauty of Voronoi diagrams for sure, but they also show disparity in wealth based on airport placement, as well as showing which regions are most diversely populated. Davies’ specific visualization of the data, like Odell’s or Koblin’s, shows an aspect otherwise not seen.
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