Mainstreaming Information Ideas

September 19, 2006

So I am taking a class called Mainstreaming Information from Lisa Strausfeld The class started kind of mellow but I am really about the crowd overall. It could be a good discussion class and I am sure the outcomes of projects would be great. So Lisa wants us to propose a project about Information Visualization. In her words. the schedule will be like this;

Students will work on a two-part semester-long design project based on an information source of their choice. Basic programming or action-script skills are required. The class will be conducted as a design studio with bi-monthly critiques. It will include some seminar discussions and guest visits by experts in the design profession. All aspects of visual communication will be addressed, with an emphasis on typography, layout, color, and motion. Students need not have any formal design training, but should come with a particular interest in and commitment to honing their design skills.

It is looking great. For the first class we mostly talk about role of information in our lives. Here are the brief notes that I took: Impact of visualization is what we are going to cover in the class. Engagement is important, what form it can take is equally important.

Demetrie had a good point; Long term thinking of information visualization. We’re piling up all the database and it’s going to be really important how we use that data, reveal that data in different shapes.

Relentless design is a good design.
She wanted us to prepare a proposal for the next class about what we want to do in terms of visualization. Beside synthesizing piles of databases, I am also interested in connecting networks and visualization in a different context. Not only getting a big chunk of data and using it, but getting gradually expanding data from invisible devices that are put in our daily lives and getting data and visualizing them in an engaging manner. The examples I talked about the class are kind of the path I want to pursue.

Information Design, 1st edition . Robert Jacobson, ed. ©MIT Press; ISBN: 0262600358
A series of essays from a number of different fields on information design and interaction design. Some are excellent, some are misguided, but all are worth reading and arguing about.
Information Arts: Intersections of Art, Science, and Technology Stephen Wilson ©MIT Press; ISBN: 026223209X. A fairly comprehensive overview of work bridging art and scientific and technological research in the recent past. Good reference of most of the major art/science collaborations of the last decade, and some interesting opinions on where art, science, technology, and critical theory meet, combine, and clash.