Artist's Statement - Project 2: SounDNA

SounDNA is a unique tool for visually juxtaposing any two songs and illustrating their complementing segments. It emerged as a result of exploring themes that I found interesting and challenging. To name a few: trigonometry and sin waves, various forms of audio analysis, and DNA structures.

The program was made entirely in Processing, and uses text file data generated from separate Processing programs. These smaller programs analyze an audio track’s waveforms at 30 frames per second, and average the several-thousand values into 30 floats, each of which represent a 30^th of a single song. These values are used to create a wavy strand-like structure. When combined with the strand of a second song, a DNA helix is made.

In real DNA helixes, a strand is composed of various sugars and, more importantly, things called nucleobases. There are four main types of nucleobases, distinguishable in conventional models by the colours green, blue, yellow, and red. Interestingly enough, green bases will only create bonds with red bases, and yellow only with blue bases. Determined to include this colour information in the final visualization, I designed the program to divide the range of values from a single strand into four sub-ranges. Values which fall into a particular sub-range are assigned that particular colour.

In the final visualization, two strands (reach representing an individual song) are wrapped in a rotating DNA-helix-like structure. Visible bonds are created between complementary song segments. To easier distinguish between the songs, each strand has a corresponding line graph above or below, depicting the negative and positive segment averages. Users are able to toggle certain interface features, including the text overlay, helix rotation speed, and having the lines follow the corresponding segment’s position on the z-axis. The presentation of this work is partially inspired by the complex scientific visualizations that frequently appear in the background of many films.

References
Damien. "Minim." Accessed March 22, 2012. http://code.compartmental.net/tools/minim/.

Data vs. Information

[In response to the Art Against Information article] 

The article begins with an important distinction between data and information.

Data is described as the raw material of information

Information is described as the meaning derived from data in a particular context

Even if it is representative, non-biased and accurate, it seems unfair to claim that raw data comes with an inherent context. It may carry logistical weight, such as sample size and type – but meaning, as the creators of The Listening Post (2003) describe, is linked with information. Mark Hansen and Ben Rubin go on to claim that information is hidden within data. While this is may be true under regular circumstances, we must be careful not to assign data a larger role than information. In some cases, data is presented ‘as is’ to support or prove a point. Information ends up exhibiting a somewhat inferior undertone. It seems to me only natural that the information or meaning plays as important a role as the data itself (if not more). Sure; information is essentially meaningless without data to quantify it… but what good is data without context?

The numerous examples provided in the article are works of data art which reveal a healthy relationship between data and information. They all cleverly create contexts and visualize information using complex datasets, all with a distinctly balanced ratio of data to information. It is indeed possible to envision this as a gradational scale, with contexts sometimes focusing on one rather than the other.

However, with all the debate about the balance between data and information, we mustn’t forget the aesthetic dimension. It’s data art, after all.

Artist Profile: Jer Thorp

Presentation slides
Prezi
PDF

Citations

Billings, Lee. "A new view of the galaxy: Exclusive Kepler data visualization by Jer Thorp - Boing Boing." Boing Boing. Accessed March 2, 2013.

http://boingboing.net/2011/02/08/a-new-view-of-the-ga.html.

Thorp, Jer. "blprnt.blg | Jer Thorp." blprnt.blg | Jer Thorp. Accessed March 2, 2013.

http://blog.blprnt.com.

"A Visualization of Kepler's Exoplanet Candidates - YouTube." YouTube. Accessed March 2, 2013.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a85d0RdsBI.

"Kepler: About the Mission." Kepler: Home Page. Accessed March 2, 2013.

http://kepler.nasa.gov/Mission/QuickGuide/.

"Memorial Guide | National September 11th Memorial & Museum." Memorial Guide | National September 11th Memorial & Museum. Accessed March 2, 2013.

http://names.911memorial.org/#lang=en_US.

"TEDxVancouver - Jer Thorp - The Weight of Data - YouTube." YouTube. Accessed March 2, 2013.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9wcvFkWpsM.

Classmate Response: What Makes a Best Picture?

Many incredible infographics were presented in class this week. However, having just watched the 85^th Academy Awards and being a huge fan of some recently released motion pictures, I was particularly drawn towards Stedman Tam's What Makes a Best Picture.

As soon as I saw the infographic, I immediately knew what it was about. If it wasn't the red curtain-like backdrop or film-strip graphics, then it was the text. The infographic title and date of award ceremony were very effective in their role of making the focus of the graphic explicit. Labels for each film strip also made it easy to realize the context for each set of sub-visualizations. 

The organization of the various visualizations was quite intuitive. Upon seeing the graphic divided in an even juxtaposition, I knew the nature of this work was comparative. By simply referring to the headings, I had no trouble navigating the graphic and understanding exactly what was being compared.

I admire the clever use of colours. In deciding to investigate the representational value of the palette, I was pleased to discover a great amount of attention to detail. In the Genre category, for instance, colours appear to have been based on the actual film genre (i.e. red for romance). The colours of films on the opposite side of the graphic matched this scheme. Furthermore, if we look at the Runtime and Rating Rank categories, we'll notice that the colour of horizontal bars grows in brightness as the length of the bar increases. This golden hue also happens to resemble that of the golden Oscar statuettes. 

To make a suggestion, I would encourage an alternate use of data visualization for the IMDB Rating Rank of 2013 films – something more visually discernable than a text-based list ordered by ranking. Perhaps a series of gold stars filled to depict the film's rating (not unlike the system used by IMDB). 

In any case, this is a lovely infographic which poses a popular question. However, rather than simply answering it, it provides the viewer with enough visually represented data to make it a pleasure to pursue. Bravo.

Asking 'Why' Leads to Diversity

[In response to Aesthetics of Information Visualization by Warren Sack]

I found that the article contained a great deal of political discussion. However, what stood out for me was the posing of a few good questions. The first being why. It's a good question because it gives artists (media artists especially) a reason to more deeply engage with their visualizations. Why this technique? Why that method? The answers lead to a chain of further questions, eventually leading us to, as the article describes, the issue of definition for aesthetic qualities, such as beauty. In the process of creating effective visualizations, we find ourselves locked in a glorious philosophical debate.

This questioning of purpose paves the way for the second major question suggested by this article; that is, the issue of the sublime. The article distinguishes between employing visualization tactics for reasons being sublime and user-friendly. Striving to make a visualization graphically easy to understand is an approach or criterion, as the author of the article claims, borrowed from the technical field of science and engineering. And so, media artists are inevitably challenged to find a comfortable balance between the so-deemed unsatisfactory qualities of predictability and ease of understanding, and the traditional artistic qualities of inventiveness, creativity, and expression.

The good thing about media art and visualizations, I find, is that artists have the freedom to place their artwork wherever they want on this gradational scale. I admit that restrictions may sometimes aid in developing an artist's understanding. However, having this freedom is what separates the art field from those such as science and engineering. It leads to diversity, and that's a good thing too.

Infographic: Roller Coasters!

The greatest roller coasters in the world!

Coaster-specific info

Number of coaster cars = number of drops

Movable, cursor-activated speed and height ruler

Roller coaster's location in the world

Point-of-view video footage of each roller coaster

Coaster info preview on hover

In the process of creating this work, I strived to maintain three principles; the first being simplicity. In choosing the world's top roller coasters for my data set, I had access to a wide variety statistics for a rather small number of elements (11). In this way, I was able to keep charts relatively small and leave room for other types of information. Accordingly, I stuck with simple shapes for the visuals, grouping them together to form clouds or coaster cars. Because the layout elements varied greatly in information type, I used contrasting colors to stress their individuality and to set them apart from one another. 

The second principle I pursued to was intuitiveness. The infographic is laid out in such a way that when you select a roller coaster from the graph, an animation depicting a roller coaster drop would appear, directing you to the coaster's location on a map of the world. Notice that as you select higher roller coasters, the drop visualization heightens accordingly. 

Leaving out the graph labels was a conscious choice as well. This was done not only to prevent the viewer from being overwhelmed by numbers, but to give them an intuitive tool with which they can estimate and compare coaster heights and speeds on their own, should they choose to. 

The third quality I hoped to maintain was essence. I wanted to display not just one facet of roller coaster-ness, such as speed, but to include things like coaster height, number of drops, location in the world, park of residence, date of opening.

Also, what better way to demonstrate the essence of roller coasters than to show POV footage for every one of them?

Citations:

“Record Holders,” Roller Coaster DataBase, accessed January 21, 2013, http://rcdb.com/rhr.htm.

“Kingda Ka Front Seat on-ride POV Six Flags Great Adventure” [May 9, 2010]. Video clip. Accessed Feb 16, 2013. YouTube. www.YouTube.com, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTNcnJS-a2M.

“Official Top Thrill Dragster POV in HD” [November 18, 2009]. Video clip. Accessed Feb 16, 2013. YouTube. www.YouTube.com, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbN3NU4hIZg.

“Superman: Escape From Krypton Front Seat (HD POV) Backwards Six Flags Magic Mountain” [March 21, 2011]. Video clip. Accessed Feb 16, 2013. YouTube. www.YouTube.com, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WQXxZmLMFQ.

“The Tower of Terror II - POV - Dreamworld Rides” [December 21, 2010]. Video clip. Accessed Feb 16, 2013. YouTube. www.YouTube.com, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsDnBIn1ouk.

“Steel Dragon 2000 onride 9 (front row)” [November 15, 2007]. Video clip. Accessed Feb 16, 2013. YouTube. www.YouTube.com, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tIkUFb3KAI.

“NEW! Official Millennium Force POV” [October 28, 2011]. Video clip. Accessed Feb 16, 2013. YouTube. www.YouTube.com, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=To3jujFzwHg.

“Leviathan Front Seat on-ride HD POV Canada's Wonderland” [May 15, 2012]. Video clip. Accessed Feb 16, 2013. YouTube. www.YouTube.com, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0ASWKwQwzE.

“Intimidator 305 Front Seat on-ride POV Kings Dominion” [April 12, 2010]. Video clip. Accessed Feb 16, 2013. YouTube. www.YouTube.com, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEyY_lO-xwA.

“Six Flags Magic Mountain Goliath POV” [March 24, 2011]. Video clip. Accessed Feb 16, 2013. YouTube. www.YouTube.com, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOqeOsjeFX4.

“FORMULA ROSSA - Onride - Ferrari World” [November 6, 2010]. Video clip. Accessed Feb 16, 2013. YouTube. www.YouTube.com, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INn1dK_l0uc.

“TV Static effect” [September 10, 2011]. Video clip. Accessed Feb 16, 2013. YouTube. www.YouTube.com, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TL1I5nVNew.

Visualization 1: Design Concept

The fastest roller coasters in the world! The data includes each coaster name, park/country of residence, max speed, opening year, and rank in the world. Is there a correlation? After experimenting with the data set and plotting various combinations, I have found several relations worth visually pursuing. In the interest of simplicity, I will, for the present time, remain with the speed vs. opening year correlation outlined below.

I also came up with a palette outlining a colour scheme, possible fonts, and shapes of the final Processing file. This palette, along with a general layout of the planned visualization, are pictured below.