IEEE VIS 2014 Arts Program Exhibition Catalog

Angus G. Forbes (1) , Fanny Chevalier (2) , Lauren Thorson (3)

1 University of Illinois at Chicago
2 MJOLNIR - Computing tools to empower users
3 Independent

In certain ways artists and visualization researchers share common goals: to make things visible which are normally difficult to see; and to enable reasoning about information that we might otherwise remain ignorant of. A conventional explanation of the differences between art practice and visualization research is that artistic exploration raises new questions, while visualization research aims to help domain experts answer existing questions. However, these categorizations may be oversimplified. Media artists create opportunities for reflecting on cultural issues, but also highlight how we absorb technology and explore how the exposure to tremendous amounts of data affects our daily lives. In the visualization community, significant emphasis has been placed on notions such as indicating uncertainty, accurately portraying data provenance, and using narrative techniques to aid in transmitting information more effectively. Visualization systems not only provide a representation of data collections, but also, wittingly or unwittingly, provide an interpretation of that data. Hence, potential areas of overlap between art and research practices are becoming more discernible. In the call for entries for Art+Interpretation– the title of this year’s Arts Program– we asked artists to think about the role of interpretation in art and visualization, and to reflect on possible answers to these questions: Can artistic practice offer insight into thinking about the effective interpretability of complex data? Conversely, can visualization research offer quantifiable methods to artists seeking to investigate and represent cultural phenomena? The thirteen artists and collaborative teams participating in the VISAP’14 Art Show present work that is not only aesthetically compelling, but that also wrestles with these questions, using their art as a method for analyzing existing methods of interpretation and as an opportunity to present new forms of meaning-making. We invite you to join with the VISAP’14 artists in thinking about the many intersections between art and research.

Domaines: Informatique

Angus G. Forbes, Fanny Chevalier, Lauren Thorson. IEEE VIS 2014 Arts Program Exhibition Catalog. Proceedings of VIS Arts Program, Nov 2014, Paris, France. IEEE, 2014, The IEEE VIS 2014 Arts Program Exhibition Catalog. ⟨hal-01169590⟩