Volume IV, Issue 3

KEYWORDS

Citizen science, information visualization, natural language analysis, real-time systems, social networks, urban anthropology, user generated content, urban sensing

ABSTRACT

We investigated the possibility of capturing real-time user-generated content produced through social networks during city-wide protests and riots. The paper presents the methods and technologies used to capture such content during a series of experiments performed on occasion of the protest which took place in the city of Rome on October 15, 2011. The results are presented here along with suggestions for further research.

For these experiments: user-generated content was harvested in real-time from social networks during the protest and riot, processed using Natural Language Analysis, and geo-referenced using geo-parsing and geo-coding techniques. The information produced from this process was then used in several prototypal usage scenarios in which specific information visualizations and dedicated interaction metaphors were designed to investigate the possibility for transforming collected data into accessible, usable, ubiquitous information.

The paper presents the design process and the results of three specific usage scenarios: a city dashboard for public administrations, a location based system for police and security forces, and an augmented reality application for protesters and citizens. The application for further research and development are also presented, as well as a detailed description of the difficulties and issues encountered in the research. An analysis of the strategies according to which complex information can be visualized and interacted with in emergency crowd scenarios (such as a massive violent riot breaking out within an urban environment), in ways that are effective and accessible are here discussed.

BIOGRAPHY

Salvatore Iaconesi is an artist, robotics engineer, hacker and interaction designer. He teaches Digital Design at the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Rome and at ISIA Design in Florence. He is founder and president of Art is Open Source, an international network operating across arts and sciences in the design of novel scenarios for human beings and cities.

Oriana Persico is a communication scientist and artist. She teaches Public and Exhibit Design at the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Rome. She designs and implements events which interweave arts and sciences. As a writer and journalist she collaborates with multiple newspapers, magazines and journals in Italy and abroad.

KEYWORDS

Data visualization, information graphics, interactive media, news graphics, reader participation

ABSTRACT

Today’s newsreaders seek to effectively extract accurate and trustworthy information from the overwhelming flood of available media. Various mass media organizations have contributed considerable effort to meet these readers’ expectations. Such effort has also created a uniquely competitive marketing endeavor to find new methods of presentation. After over two years of thorough preparations and strategic trials focused on meeting readers’ needs, Chosun.com officially launched InfoGraphics to provide highly compelling presentations of news through the paradigm of information visualization. Chosun.com is one of the leading news websites in South Korea; it is affiliated with The Chosun Ilbo (Korea Daily News), the largest and most read newspaper in South Korea.

The term InfoGraphics, as used by Chosun.com, seeks to combine the following three media aspects: information, graphics, and news. The purpose of InfoGraphics is to provide the reader with the experience of news within a deeper context of related information. This approach allows Chosun.com’s InfoGraphics to stand out distinctively among other vendors who only provide traditional illustrations and graphs as a means for readers to view information in an enhanced manner.

One of the most beneficial characteristics of Chosun.com’s InfoGraphics is that our graphic works often combine both information design and interactive design to allow readers to “experience” news or information. Such an approach helps our readers stay more engaged—and even entertained—while exploring and viewing various news subjects and other significant social issues through graphics and interactions. The storytelling technique of having readers “view” and “participate” also helps us better convey particular topics that may be difficult for readers to comprehend if only presented verbally. (Additionally, our unique model of presenting news with visualization and interactivity has helped us stay competitive among other news media vendors offering the similar services).

Presenting news content through information graphics enhances the storytelling process, however, our objective is to go beyond this to present more highly sophisticated news content. Creating quality information graphics requires a more thorough analyses and reconstruction of content. The process entails the comprehensive collection of the core information, as well as its contextual information and related social issues. Therefore, when we present our information graphics, we need to synchronize the core information with rich contextual issues. As a result, we have learned that our works have gained more credibility and dissemination through the several case studies that we conducted respecting reader responses.

BIOGRAPHY

Mi-sun Kim works for Digital Chosun Inc., one of Korea’s leading online news websites. She is in charge of managing the InfoGraphics team of the company, dedicated to creating visual representations of news and information.

She holds Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Fine Arts, and is pursuing her master’s degree (MA) of Advertising and Public Relations in Journalism and Mass Communication at Yonsei University, South Korea. She has been involved in various projects such as creating documentary videos as a filmmaker or producer. She also participated in The Chosun Ilbo’s “On The Border,” a documentary on the flight of North Korean refugees, which drew worldwide acclaim and won awards from global events including Monte Carlo TV Festival Awards and Rory Peck Awards.

KEYWORDS

Aesthetic-based science, dyslexia, learning disabilities

ABSTRACT

Dyslexia is a learning disability that plagues five to ten percent of the world’s population, this translates into approximately 684,050,700 diagnosed cases. Dyslexia cannot be alleviated through a simple treatment, instead it requires years of educational support to help a child overcome their disability. What is most unfortunate is the fact that over sixty-three percent of dyslexic patients appear to have a higher than average IQ, yet they are held back from achieving full potential by this curious malady.

Through the exploration of written symbols, particularly in the formal area of typography, we have pursued a solution that would be readily accessible and implementable as we addressed the two major types of dyslexia. Our goal was to investigate and generate something effectively informative—in the sense that it would be able to help a great number of people—however, we were also looking to leverage the artistic side of experimental typography toward that aim.

BIOGRAPHY

KEYWORDS

Community mapping, high school projects, map-as-art, mapping projects, San Diego, social mapping, teenage students, visual literacyg

ABSTRACT

Mapping projects challenge students to engage in critical thinking, research, and analysis in ways that customarily written-only assignments may not. The effort to place their findings in a greater context inspires questions in both the production of mapping outcomes as well through the responses and interest of viewers who see such outcomes. We tested this process by asking students to design maps of San Diego that juxtaposed contradictory or paradoxical elements of our social and geographical environment. As a background to the specificity of our assignment, we grappled with the following questions: How do we help students to become more aware of their surroundings in order to foster an educated, ethical, and empathetic community? How do we facilitate opportunities to help students translate experiences, investigations, and ideas into artistic maps that effectively communicate new knowledge or new insights? In order to further help students think critically about their communities, we asked them to map an area of San Diego of personal significance. We desired that they should step back from the familiar aspects of their community and city and translate those aspects into a visual map. Students researched their city and community in myriad ways. By compiling their findings and making collective and idiosyncratic maps of San Diego they were challenged to rethink what they understood to be the reality of the built environment around them, as well as to accept the new knowledge that their classmates contributed. They were also challenged to learn principles of visual literacy through effective communication of complex meanings articulated through two-dimensional design. As a result of undertaking the project, the students became more invested in their own community because their new knowledge implicates them as involved citizens. By exhibiting their digital maps in multiple venues, students invited their communities to participate in Complex City: A Student Atlas of San Diego Cartography at High Tech High Media Arts Rachel Nichols and Margaret Noble with natalia molina and meg wesling contributing this project of making San Diego a complex city.

BIOGRAPHY

Since 1997, Rachel Nichols has played many pedagogical roles: including posts in Indiana, New York, and California. Currently, she teaches English at High Tech High Media Arts, where she pushes students to ask and answer important ethical questions and encourages students to hone their skills as critical thinkers and knowledgeproducers.

Margaret Noble’s artistic and educational work has been showcased nationally and internationally over the past ten years. In 2011, she won two Microsoft Innovative Educator global awards. Currently, she is a working artist, performer, and sound and mixed media arts instructor at High Tech High in San Diego, California.

Megan Wesling is an Associate Professor of Literature at UC, San Diego. Her first book, Empire’s Proxy: American Literature and U. S. Imperialism in the Phillipines, was published by New York University Press in 2011.

Natalia Molina is an Associate Professor of History at UC, San Diego. Her first book is Fit to Be Citizens: Public Health and Race in Los Angeles, 1879–1939 was published by University of California Press in 2006.