Currently 1 visitor is viewing this site.

Approaches to data visualisation/transformation


This area has many different labels depending on the field or discipline that is ascribing it. Sometimes it is described very general as imaging technologies, data visualisation, as "mapping from one sensorial domain to another" or as being "morphologically analogous" occassionally as synaesthetic and some even call it "Non-visual & Multimodal Visualization", the latter the title of a conference in London in 02005.
Essentially it is about the many different ways of organising data in such a manner that we gain new knowledge or insights from it. A common example would be organising dry figures to charts and diagrams which help us to comprehend complex data - yet in a broader sense it also includes more complex processes such as, for example, those mp3 visualisers that create colourful animated visuals sychronised with the music in realtime. Here data is transformed from one sensorial modality hearing into another, seeing, a stupefying and intriguing process, only possible through computer mediation. Transformations such as these may change our whole concept and perception of the world; If we think this a little further a multitude of different useful and playful applications come to mind. The implications for many areas are fundamental and the lack of publications shows how much this area is underestimated.

Many of these transformations - a change of form - as which I would like to describe it from here on, are confinded to the computer screen, but it is the physical space where it really gets interesting.
This page explores the idea that we could and should experience mediated data not only visual or auditive but through all our senses, as temperature, olfactory sense (scent), vibration (mobile phone!). We are multisensorial beings and exist with all our senses in the world! A simple leaf from a tree tells us so much. We know which type of tree it came from, we can tell if it is fresh or wilted and allows for many conscious and subconscious conclusions. Digital artefacts provide little of these qualities, they reach us mostly on a cognitive and rational channel ... and perhaps lately it is also a certain emotional quality to which they apply to.

The aim of this design task is to transform remote, abstract and “dry” data into sensual experiences (which is similar to what the German "sinnlich" covers). These data can turn into information through a conscious design process and be used to alter the behaviour, appearance or sound of media installation pieces that themselves can involve, inform or delight individuals in a more sensuous and experiential manner then mere charts, graphs or diagrams can.
Potentially they can make complex and abstract relationships intelligible and tangible.
From an intelligently design bus schedule to software that displays abstract fractal mathematical formulas.

Here we also see the intrinsic relationship to Telematics! While visualisation/transformation has a focus upon the process of how (local or indiscernible) data is transformed from one sensorial modality to another, Telematics has its focus upon time and the geographical distance the data covers. Together they point to a potential area of research where geographical distance, archived or live data, and different display technologies would allow us to learn about remote places in entirely new ways, similar to a airplane cockpit where all information flows together.

With my background in design it is all about making data intelligible and comprehensive by turning it into useful information. This may be a bus schedule or a wayfinding system: With all utalitarian design that fullfils a strict function i think it should work like an old-school gentleman being dressed. You do not remember what he wore. When one has to think to "read" a bus schedule the designer has done something not quite right. In that respect it is rooted in the domain of graphic-design, which has been traditionally concerned about visualising data.

The media-adequate transformation of data into experiences is a crucial point in these explorations. Not every medium is useful for every type of data. In some cases it might make more sense to make a book instead of a website, sometimes a film serves the purpose better then an elaborate CD-Rom. The rules vary from data type and purpose. In fact there aren't any rules.

Another aspect of this transformation is the idea to bring "life" and sensousness into the realm of the digital, proverbial "cold" and "abstract", that have become almost synonyms for "technical".
It does so by describing attributes of everyday objects and comparing their qualities to those of computer user-interface properties. As the use of computers has shifted from being a tool for a few, to a (mass) medium for many, expectations towards technologies have changed and what has been accepted by many until now is not satisfactory anymore. It encourages "Users" to get involved, realising that they are not technological illiterates but that interfaces are clumsy. Which is a question of design.

Therefor this page also encourages multidisciplinary collaborations among people from different backgrounds, artists, musicians, architects, computer specialists, designers and others.

This page describes four different approaches of use of the internet beyond traditional World Wide Web projects: Transforming real world actions to the web and vice versa. Mapping real world actions to the real world. Mapping web actions to the real world and transforming web processes back to the web. In general these projects are medially transforming remote activities into dynamically animated visuals with additional sensuous (e.g. “musical”) output – and vice versa. Mostly they are technically not trivial and require skills from different disciplines such as computer programming, architecture, design, music and the visual arts.

These four documented approaches are serving as examplary cases only and numerous other varieties are conceivable. Tranformation is the same process that Lev Manovich calls "mapping from one domain to another". It think it is a transformation as it takes shape in another form.

As more and more information reaches us via computer mediation this is a development that should not be underestimated. It is a challenge for all the disciplines involved especially those of information visualisation, information architects, HCI and interface design. In the past this involved graphic-designers which are educated in creating maps, charts and diagrams. In the future this will involve all the other senses, and too little attention is given to this at the moment.

The 02006 version of the transformation and spatiality diagram

This diagram can display local transformation (for example gravity), transformation between here and there, the spatiality of the data, whether it is synchronous or asynchronous etc. The example is Ken Goldberg et.al.'s installation "Mori."

Transformation, 2003

The evolution of this diagram; for example and earthquake may be transformed into an experience at another location. The displays can be any actuator; a platform that vibrates, visual "spikes" on a screen. The data remain within the same medium. The diagram is limited in that it only can display the modality of the sensorial transformation but not local data that is transformed or the spatiality of the medium, whether it is on a screen, spatial or even tangible.

transformation 2004, from one medium to another

Obviously some data are more suitable to be medially transformed than others.
Some Examples:
Transforming:
Motion to Sound: Very Nervous System
Motion to Visuals: Ephemere
Audio to Visuals & vice versa: a piece shown at BHCI2003, Bath
Audio to Visuals: iTunes or other mp3 player visual plugins
Skin Conductance Level & Heart Rate Variability: The Wild Devine

It could also describe someone playing a Violin, but that process would be analogue.

What is the relationship between transformation and artificiality?

If it is a traditional audio-video connection, they are identical. Image and sound resemble the original as close as technically possible. There is no artificiality and no transformation. Although the image is heavily mediated it is not perceived as such. The dancing pixels on the screen resemble what i expect to see. Just as the psychoacoustics that enable the amount of data compression in mp3's.
If we get what we expect to get it does not seem artificial. So it depends on the relationship to the original source of data and the context.

Matrix?

Is it possible to create something like a matrix that displays meaningful transformations?
E.g. Is vibration better to be transformed into audio then into visual? Depends on the purpose. And what does "meaningful" mean in this sense?
transformed but isomorph?
semiotic relationships?
psychological?
phenemenological?


And how should it be called?

audification, sonification, auralisation?
scentification, olfactorisation, scentisation?
vibrasation?
How will we call floor vibration? A change of scent that we can't recognise consciously but that influences us (as Hormons do)?



Non-visual & Multimodal Visualization?

Almost 40 years after the first synaesthetic sculptures have been described in Jasia Reichhardt's "cybernetic serendipity" and "visualisation" has been a key issue in media design and graphic design. A conference is organised by researchers from Computer Sciences especially from VR. I would not be surprised if other disciplines organised similar events as as well, they just call them something different and so we will never find out.
The term "Non-visual visualisation" contradicts itself. Something is either visual or not. I don't think we should live with this term, even "transformation" is better. Cross-sensorial transformation? Cross-sensorial mapping? ("Cross-medial" is already occupied by marketing ...)

"First International Symposia on Non-visual & Multimodal Visualization. Non-visual communication is on the increase. Indeed, information can be presented by sound, touch, or any of our senses: utilizing our ability to perform multisensory perception. Not only are these environments useful for accessibility, but by using different modalities the compound presentation (1) can be more understandable (the additional modality reinforces the former), (2) the diverse modalities may enable information to be perceived in situations where visual display devices cannot be used effectively (such as when using small screens or remote operation) and (3) the user may more easily perceive the information through one sense as opposed to another. Over the last few years, different devices have been designed which allow the user to perceive information through sound (sonification) or by means of tactile, kinesthetic or force-feedback channels. It is also possible to utilize other senses such as smell (olfaction) or taste."
http://www.m2vis.org/

" - Non-visual visualization
- Dynamic & exploratory non-visual visualization
- Multimodal visualization
- Multisensory perception for visualization
- Force-feedback and haptic visualization, including:
- kinaesthetic, tactile and force-feedback devices and applications
- temperature-based visualization
- Sonification/Auralization, including:
- image sonification,
- schematic sonification
- algorithm sonification
- auralization
- Earcons
- High fidelity (realistic) sound rendering in VR
- Visualization by smell (Olfaction) or taste (Gustation)
- Perception issues for multimodal visualization
- Multi-perception VR environments
- Visualization accessibility"

last update: 6/21/02009 16:37

About Contact Disclaimer Glossary Index