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Visualizing data is an art

perthirtysix.com

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Re: Visualizing data is an art

#51

Post by wodenokoto »

openrisk wrote: post #38

Visualization seems to have stagnated in the AI craze era. Lots of androids touching holographic screens and what not, as metaphors for the almighty "AGI" coming any day now, but cant recall a major new development in the last five years? One area that might be "pregnant" for some new approaches is the visualization of large datasets, eg large graphs. Extracting useful (and objective) information instead of ovewhelmi…

What was the major new development in visualization in the past 10 years?

I don’t think there has really been one in decades. We’ve gotten better tools for making viz interactive but that’s about it.

Re: Visualizing data is an art

#52

Post by nbzso »

Nice. But please educate yourself on a difference between art and design. They have similarities in language, but have completely opposite function. Art is a personal expression with a given medium which translates directly the intent. Design has a focus on thinking about the function and perceptions of other people. Visualizing data is a design problem.

Re: Visualizing data is an art

#53

Post by binghatch »

> The reason is that humans are much better at comparing lengths than they are at comparing angles.

Maybe the subdivisions with exact numbers also play a significant role in the effectiveness of the bar chart in the article. It lets you compare against a clear reference, so you're often comparing to the scale itself rather than directly between bars.

Re: Visualizing data is an art

#55

Post by RataNova »

minimaxir wrote: post #10

During the rise of the generative AI backlash, I once saw a take along the lines of "data visualization doesn't count as art because you write it with code: art only counts if you put sweat and tears and labor into it." I was too baffled to respond.

By that logic, photography, digital painting, music production, and even architectural design wouldn't count as art because they involve tools and technology

Re: Visualizing data is an art

#56

Post by stared »

minimaxir wrote: post #10

During the rise of the generative AI backlash, I once saw a take along the lines of "data visualization doesn't count as art because you write it with code: art only counts if you put sweat and tears and labor into it." I was too baffled to respond.

I bet this person has never created a data visualization.

On the contrary, I think data visualization (along with architecture, mathematics, and mechanical watches) is one of the most interesting art forms that requires strict constraints.

Re: Visualizing data is an art

#59

Post by shriracha »

LeffeBrune wrote: post #57

> The reason is that humans are much better at comparing lengths than they are at comparing angles. Are you sure 10% increment guides in bar chart have nothing to do with this?

Hah, so I actually went back and forth on that. The original studies around visual inference also included axis labels on the bar chart. The fact that you CAN label the axis on a bar chart that way is actually an argument people make not to use pie charts.

Re: Visualizing data is an art

#60

Post by shriracha »

nbzso wrote: post #52

Nice. But please educate yourself on a difference between art and design. They have similarities in language, but have completely opposite function. Art is a personal expression with a given medium which translates directly the intent. Design has a focus on thinking about the function and perceptions of other people. Visualizing data is a design problem.

No reason those need to be mutually exclusive. Posted this in another thread, but I don't see a good argument against this project (https://www.dear-data.com) being both data visualization and being an act of personal expression.
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