Making Data: Materializing Digital Information

(Paperback)

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Description

For many outside of the scientific community, big data and the forms it takes, such as statistical lists, spreadsheets and graphs, often seem abstract and unintelligible. This book investigates how digital fabrication and traditional making approaches are being used to present data in newly engaging and interesting ways.

The first part of the book introduces the basic premise of the data object and the concept of making digital data into a physical form. Contributors cover topics such as biometrics, new technology, the economics of data and open and community uses of data. The second part presents a selection of exemplar forms and contexts for the application of data-objects, such as smart surfaces, smart cities, augmented reality techniques and next generation technical interfaces that blend physical and digital elements.

Making Data delivers the importance and likely future prevalence of physical representations of data. It explores the creative methods, processes, theories and cultural histories of making physical representations of information and proposes that the making of data into physical objects is the next important development in the data visualisation phenomenon.

Reviews

A valuable counterpoint to the popular idea that data visualization is beautiful, this book provides a thoughtful and pragmatic position on material and experiential manifestations of data. It contains an array of perspectives on the subject, including the history of datas material manifestations and the challenges of achieving human-centred design with increasingly complex socio-technical problems * Peter A. Hall, Reader in Graphic Design, UAL Camberwell, Chelsea and Wimbledon, UK *
This is a fascinating anthology of fresh thinking on how we can understand our world through data. Materialist, sensory and phenomenological approaches to knowledge long practiced in the Arts are now having increasing impact on other disciplines. This book provides numerous examples and ideas on how materializing information can lead to more nuanced understandings and heightened engagement with data. Covering theory, practice and methodologies, this is an expansive and unique collection on the materialization of digital information * on McCormack, SensiLab Director, Monash University, Australia *

Author Bio

Ian Gwilt is Professor of Design at the University of South Australia