The Art and Science of Visualization: Metaphorical Maps and Cultural Models

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The Art and Science of Visualization: Metaphorical Maps and Cultural Models TA_2-2_Layout 9/11/04 3:42 pm Page 71 Technoetic Arts: A Journal of Speculative Research Volume 2 Number 2. © Intellect Ltd 2004. Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/tear.2.2.71/0 The Art and Science of Visualization: Metaphorical Maps and Cultural Models Donna J. Cox University of Illinois Abstract Keywords The author has collaborated in research teams to visualize supercomputer simu- data-visualization lations and real-time data. She describes these collaborative projects that metaphor employ advanced-technology graphics and novel digital displays that include mapping large-format IMAX film, high-definition television productions, and a museum astrophysics digital dome at the American Museum of Natural History. The popularity of virtual reality these images and the function that they provide in popular culture are discussed. postcolonial She also describes two key technologies that she was part of designing: IntelliBadge(tm), a real-time visualization and ‘smart’ tracking system; and Virtual Director(tm), a virtual camera choreography and remote collaboration system. The process of data-visualization involves the mapping of data from numerical form into an iconic representational form in the attempt to provide humans with insight and understanding of a phenomenon. This is discussed in the context of metaphor, cognition, and postcolonial theory. Because data-visu- alizations carry the ‘weight of scientific accuracy and advanced technology’, most general audiences confuse these visualizations as ‘real’; however, it is argued that data-visualizations are models and metaphors, not reality. In metaphor theory, the mapping of attributes from one domain of information into another is how humans understand, create, and engender new meaning. Data mapping is correlated with this theory. The author explores how the use of mapping information is culturally contingent. In the spirit of scientific inquiry, she deconstructs the very professional activity for which she is most famous. 1. Background of visualization and technology projects Since 1985, I have collaborated with scientists and computer technologists to visualize scientific data from supercomputer simulations at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. ‘Renaissance Teams’ are teams of specialists including artists and designers who collaborate to solve problems in the visualization of data. The process of scientific visualization involves the translation of numbers into computer graphics and other computer-medi- ated imagery. As an artist, I have participated in these collaborations in several different areas that include the production, direction, design, colour, and editing of the visuals. Over the years, general audience popularity of these visualizations has increased. These modern scientific visualizations TA 2(2) 71–79 © Intellect Ltd 2004 71 TA_2-2_Layout 9/11/04 3:42 pm Page 72 have shaped the views of many people. My NCSA team and I have collabo- rated on several major projects. In addition, we have developed innovative software and new technologies. I will describe several of these projects below. In 1994, I was Associate Director for Scientific Visualization and Art Director for the PIXAR/NCSA segment of a large-scale film project. Cosmic Voyage, an IMAX movie about the relative scale of things in the universe, was nominated for an Academy Award in 1996. Over 6 million people have seen this IMAX film. A typical IMAX screen is about 70 feet across; the film is more than 10 times the emulsion area of a regular Hollywood 35mm movie. An IMAX theatre is an immersive space because the audience’s field of view is totally surrounded by image and audio. Computational science and visualization was an important part of the making of Cosmic Voyage. The advanced technologies of supercomputing and visualization were employed to artistically render images of galaxies colliding in swirling paint- like effects. I collaborated with artists, scientists and technologists to realize an unprecedented number of computer-graphic visualizations for the IMAX film. In addition, we were developing new technologies at the University of Illinois to help create animations for it. In 1996, Robert Patterson (NCSA), Marcus Thiébaux, then a student at the University of Illinois, and I created Virtual Director(tm), a software framework that operates in the CAVE, a room-size, virtual environment with a rear-screen projection system that allows one to see in three-dimensional stereo. Virtual Director(tm) is a choreography and navigation system that enables the user to control the virtual camera, to record frames and to see the recording on a virtual television screen in the CAVE. Virtual Director(tm) also provides capabilities to collaborate over the Internet so that users can interact together even though they may be located at great distances from each other geographically. Initially, we used Virtual Director(tm) to create scenes for Cosmic Voyage; however, we have been developing and expanding upon this software since 1994. We also used Virtual Director(tm) to interactively work with scientists at the Hayden Planetarium. Each user has an independent point of view and can navigate independently while creating and sharing camera paths. Users share the same visual ‘space’ and see the same environment, and they can fly to dif- ferent locations within that space. When users meet in cyberspace, they see their collaborators as avatars. Avatars are visual metaphors for humans in cyberspace. The original Eastern mythological meaning of ‘avatar’ is the incarnation of God on earth. In virtual reality, avatar is the incarnation of the human in virtual space. In the CAVE using Virtual Director(tm) soft- ware, a user is represented over the network as an avatar and can see other avatars floating and flying in ‘cyberspace’ space. To create the following shows and exhibits with the Hayden Planetarium, we used Virtual Director’s remote virtual collaborative capabil- ities over the Internet: from our CAVE in the University of Illinois (in the middle of United States of America) to the New York City digital dome. My team worked from Illinois and collaborated in real time with the Hayden 72 Donna J. Cox TA_2-2_Layout 9/11/04 3:42 pm Page 73 Planetarium staff to design and choreograph camera paths through the synthetic astrophysical space. The Hayden Planetarium is using the interac- tive Virtual Director(tm) for evening public interactive shows where the audience can control the digital dome and the Milky Way galaxy model. This virtual-reality technology has provided a method of creating animations for many visualization projects since 1993. We have collaborated with the Hayden Planetarium, American Museum of Natural History, in New York City in the production of two ‘space’ shows in their large digital dome theatre; and also for their Big Bang Theatre exhibit. A ‘space’ show is here defined as a digital image playback with audio and music, and people pay to view the show. The first ‘space’ show was called Passport to the Universe, narrated by actor Tom Hanks, and opened at the Millennium 2000 New Year’s donor celebration. The second ‘space’ show, The Search for Life, narrated by actor Harrison Ford, opened in February 2002. Both of these high-resolution, digital shows are exhibited in the upper hemisphere of a large digital dome (over 9 million pixels), which provides an immersive experience to 440 people during each 17-minute show. We created digital visualizations of the large-scale structure of the universe as well as the local galactic structure near the Milky Way galaxy. Brent Tully, an astronomer from the University of Hawaii, provided mapped locations of galaxies from telescopic data. My NCSA team and I created digital images of a voyage through the cosmos arriving at the large-scale structure of the universe. Over 2.5 million people have seen this exhibit in the last couple of years. We also collaborated with the Hayden Planetarium to provide imagery for their Big Bang Theatre exhibit, which occupies the lower hemisphere of the digital dome structure. Modern Big Bang scientific theorists believe that the universe formed over 15 billion years ago and that hot, dense gas formed stars and protogalaxies that congregated along filaments. Astronomers view today’s galactic filamentary structure of the universe through telescopes. Choreographer Robert Patterson, software developer Stuart Levy and I worked with astrophysicist Dr Michael Norman to visual- ize over 500 gigabytes of simulation data to show the evolution of the uni- verse following the Big Bang. The audience of 200 people can peer over a railing into a large bowl-shaped digital display to view the digital anima- tions. Looking into the Big Bang digital display bowl is reminiscent of peering into a boiling cauldron where hot gas produces strings of galaxies. Poet Maya Angelou narrates while the audience watches the formation of the universe in the Big Bang cauldron. This scientific narrative of creation draws upon the latest technology and scientific theory. In addition to museums and planetariums, we have also developed visualizations for broadcast television shows. We produced visualizations for the high-definition (over 2 million pixels) television Public Broadcasting System (PBS) NOVA/WGBH show, Runaway Universe. I was producer and art director for the NCSA visualizations for this one-hour special. The story describes how scientists map the universe and require visualizations. Patterson, Levy, and I visualized scientific and astronomical data for this The Art and Science of Visualization: Metaphorical Maps and Cultural Models 73 TA_2-2_Layout 9/11/04 3:42 pm Page 74 programme that was aired in November 2000 and again in July 2001. Several of the scientific models were the same as in the Hayden exhibits. The show takes us on a virtual voyage from the early universe, to the for- mation of our galaxy, out of the Milky Way to the Virgo cluster of galaxies. This journey is made possible through the use of digital computer-graphics images, telescopic star catalogue data, and supercomputer simulations.
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