A Fascinating Constellation

This con­stel­la­tion of research­ers work­ing in over­lap­ping fields of know­ledge, inform­a­tion, soft­ware and data visu­al­iz­a­tion is a great jump­ing off spot. <a href=“http://www.visual-literacy.org/” target=“_blank””>Visual-Literacy.org is a col­lect­ive course span­ning sev­eral insti­tu­tions and involving a num­ber of lead­ers in the field of visu­al­isa­tion. Sounds rather cool. As part of their pro­spectus they have con­struc­ted ‘maps’ of the visu­al­isa­tion con­stel­la­tion as geo-spatial map, peri­odic table, and a syl­lo­gism. This is a real practise/preach exer­cise and a won­der­ful over­view of the wide range of activ­it­ies in this field and their inter-relations. The peri­odic table is par­tic­u­larly impress­ive. Hover will popup a graph­ical rep­res­ent­a­tion of the tech­nique noted. The syl­lo­gism makes a lot of sense. The peri­odic table must be com­pli­men­ted for the breadth of inform­a­tion con­veyed and the attempt to sys­tem­at­ize the volume. The table itself is a bit of a chal­lenge to use and the meta­phor of peri­odic table ques­tion­able, but a pointer in an inter­est­ing dir­ec­tion.