*mainstreaming:Class Notes *mainstreaming:happiness

• Role of Information in our lives. There is still problems with that.
• Impact of visualization is what is we are going to cover in class.
• Engagement is important, what form it can take.
• Long term thinking of information visualization. We’re piling up all the database and it’s going to be really important how we use that data, reveal that data.
• Think and bring 1-2 projects that are appealing to you.

projects that I like

• DriftNet
• I really like this project because first of all it is engaging. When I look at it, it directly pulls my attention and create this feeling of curiousity which makes me feel like to engage with it. Second of all, I like the abstraction path he chooses. Lots of informational projects try to create representational of information in the most understandable way. We don’t see such an attempt here. The artist tries to convey his message through visualizing the information. He is actively inside the piece by his comment as opposed to general examples of information visualization projects where we have seen struggling attempt to give “transparent” data. I think this project is a good example of how we can use information visualization in a more abstract way.
• Making Visible the Invisible
• Second example I chose is from Seattle. This is an installation in Seattle Public Library which visualizes data consisting of list of checked-out items in a chronological order. I found this project engaging in a different channel if we compare with the previous one. This time, the main thing that attracts me is not characteristic of playfulness of the piece. It is that, I can see different layers of representation that give me insight about the content and indirectly about the social network that I am also participating.

proposal ideas

• Everyday intentionally or not we are socially interacting with each other in certain places like elevators, doors, queues etc. Those interactions are sometimes direct and sometimes indirect, meaning we don’t necessarily talk to each other at those moments, but still, I believe there is some sort of narrative of the whole experience. There is some potential that we can make this experience more engaging. The project that in my mind is leaning towards revealing those kinds of patterns and transform them into something interesting. For example; an information visualization display piece where we can put in our lobby, displaying how many people are using the left door, how many people are using the right door when entering the building. Or some kind of application in the elevator which reveals which floors are used more often than the others.