Visualizations in Art and Science - POLYLOGUES III.

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Abstract

In this session we will look closer at examples of artistic practices using databases, scientific data analysis and visualization techniques: projects exploring database politics, admiring the beauty of information and data, examples of database art and visualizations.

Call open till 20. May 2006!

Questions and Topics

Do the visualization techniques help us comprehend the world or they make it more obscure?
How to represent complexity and emergence?
Should we use only visual means when representing databases or should we experiment with sounds etc.?

What is the world that is revealed by such representations and translations?
Is such view still human?
Does it marginalizes humans because of their inability to influence or even comprehend such scales of complexity?
Do visualizations offer a critique of anthropocentrism or they only offer new extensions to human senses?

How to compare the functions of visualizations in art and science?

How to describe digital art in which the interface serves as a place of contemplation and not interaction?
Is it acceptable for the user to remain a viewer in such artworks?
How to build interfaces for contemplation?

Do these artworks create a special type of aesthetic distance?
Should we speak of digital sublime?

Can we call these type of artworks a contemplative digital art? What is digital contemplation after all?
Is it really the opposite of interactivity and immersion? Does it show certain “maturing” of the digital art?

Moderators:

Kamila B. Richter
PhD. Candidate
Academy of Fine Arts in Prague
Research project: Sonification and Visualization of Complex Dynamic Information
kam[at]avu.cz
http://nemec.wz.cz/thesis/

Denisa Kera
Center for Global Studies
Academy of science and Charles University in Prague
New Media Studies
denisa.kera[at]ff.cuni.cz

John Holder
School of Architecture and the Visual Arts
University of East London
Digital Arts and Visual Cultures
holder[at]uel.ac.uk

Links:

http://www.visualcomplexity.com/vc
http://nemec.wz.cz/thesis
http://social.cs.uiuc.edu/projects.html
http://www.manovich.net/DOCS/data_art.doc
http://www.nsf.gov/about/history/nsf0050/visualization/alternative.htm
http://www.cscs.ch/~mvalle/visualization/VizArt.html
http://www.math.yorku.ca/SCS/Gallery
http://visualization.stanford.edu