Mapping & Data Visualization Slideshow Notes
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Mapping & Data Visualization Slideshow Notes Slide 1: Title Introduction to Data Visualization and Mapping - why such a big explosion in the past years? How can we determine “good” images? How can we wade through so much data and condense it? Image: interior of a mouse’s ear. Pseudocolored, direct volume rendering of the inner portions of a mouse cochlea in which all of the cells have been removed by a detergent. Extracellular matrix, including blood vessel basement membranes, can be seen via specific fluorescent antibody labeling and imaging by scanning thin sheet laser imaging microscopy. Purpose: to understand the molecular mechanisms of hearing. Studying mice sheds light on genetic and physiological basis for human hearing impairment. Slide 2: Definition Mark Lombardi is a visual artist who maps the relationships between people and studies the connections and degrees of closeness. For example, he explores subjects such as the Vatican Bank, the Iran-Contra scandal, and the Iraq war - in short, he studies the “uses and abuses of power.” He traces the path of money and business to track a web of interconnected sources. In the process, he creates abstract drawings that stand alone in their own right as artistic explorations. He calls these drawings “Narrative Structures.” http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1487185 Slide 3: Information Mapping History Charles Minard is considered the “father of information graphics” because he invented the bar graph, the pie chart, and the line graph. The chart above tells the story of a war: Napoleon’s Russian campaign of 1812. It was drawn half a century afterwards by Charles Joseph Minard, a French civil engineer who worked on dams, canals and bridges. He was 80 years old and long retired when, in 1861, he called on the innovative techniques he had invented for the purpose of displaying flows of people, in order to tell the tragic tale in a single image. Edward Tufte, whose book, “The Visual Display of Quantitative Information” is a bible to statisticians, calls it “the best statistical graphic ever drawn”. [SOURCE] Minard’s chart shows six types of information: geography, time, temperature, the course and direction of the army’s movement, and the number of troops remaining. The widths of the gold (outward) and black (returning) paths represent the size of the force, one millimetre to 10,000 men. Geographical features and major battles are marked and named, and plummeting temperatures on the return journey are shown along the bottom. The chart tells the dreadful story with painful clarity: in 1812, the Grand Army set out from Poland with a force of 422,000; only 100,000 reached Moscow; and only 10,000 returned. The detail and understatement with which such horrifying loss is represented combine to bring a lump to the throat. As men tried, and mostly failed, to cross the Bérézina river under heavy attack, the width of the black line halves: another 20,000 or so gone. The French now use the expression “C’est la Bérézina” to describe a total disaster. In 1871, the year after Minard died, his obituarist cited particularly his graphical innovations: “For the dry and complicated columns of statistical data, of which the analysis and the discussion always require a great sustained mental effort, he had substituted images mathematically proportioned, that the first glance takes in and knows without fatigue, and which manifest immediately the natural consequences or the comparisons unforeseen.” The chart shown here is singled out for special mention: it “inspires bitter reflections on the cost to humanity of the madnesses of conquerors and the merciless thirst of military glory”. What does the map show us ● Forces visual comparisons (the upper lighter band showing the large army going to Moscow vs. the narrow dark band showing the small army returning). ● Shows causality (the temperature chart at the bottom). ● Captures multivariate complexity (size of army, location, direction, temperature, and time). ● Integrates text and graphic into a coherent whole. ● Illustrate high quality content (complete and accurate data, presented to support Minard’s argument against war). ● Place comparisons adjacent to each other, not sequentially (people forget if they have to go from page to page ). ● Use the smallest effective differences (i.e., avoid bold colors, heavy lines, distracting labels and scales). https://datavizblog.com/2013/05/26/dataviz-history-charles-minards-flow-map-of-napoleons-russia n-campaign-of-1812-part-5/ Other influential works by Charles Minard: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1c/Minard-carte-viande-1858.png/250p x-Minard-carte-viande-1858.png Pie chart of cows raised in France for consumption in Paris. Master of condensing information. John Snow: John Snow (15 March 1813 – 16 June 1858) was an English physician and a leader in the adoption of anaesthesia and medical hygiene. He is considered one of the fathers of modern epidemiology, in part because of his work in tracing the source of a cholera outbreak in Soho, London, in 1854. His findings inspired fundamental changes in the water and waste systems of London, which led to similar changes in other cities, and a significant improvement in general public health around the world. (Wikipedia) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Snow Mapping can bring change, especially in public health. For example, the importance of handwashing can quickly be seen with a visual representation of the spread of germs. Slide 4: Mapping Transportation The London transportation system (bussing and underground) was becoming a complex and growing web. Engineer Harry / Henry (called both) Beck decided the map needed an overhaul and created the first “identity system” for transportation, since copied by almost all urban transport systems. See other examples: Massimo Vignelli in NYC, Paris, Washington DC. What’s the system? Abandon actual distance in favor of abstracted proximity. Color coding still exists, but exchanges are more clear. What’s the goal? Clear communication and smooth traffic flow. Sidenote: Edward Johnston created a typeface that was used in the updated logo. Very influential in the modern era, for clarity and fresh appeal: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35916807 The London Transport system inspired Harry Beck and many other artists. An exhibition called Mind the Map: Inspiring London Art, Design, and Cartography explores the relationship between transportation, design, art, and mapping. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2012/may/24/mind-the-map-in-pictures Slide 5: World Geographic Atlas We quickly 1. Understand relationships, 2. Identify patterns, 3. Predict trends, and 4. See the quick communication - a great example of data visualization. Herbert Bayer was a graphic designer and type designer at the Bauhaus, in Germany. WWII forced him to leave, and he emigrated to the US. Walter Paepcke, the CEO of the Container Corporation of America, was a super-funder of graphic design, and he commissioned Bayer to produce a massive atlas that mapped as much information as possible in one physical book. It was never commercially sold, only given to libraries and universities. It was printed on high-quality paper and produced originally as guache paintings (short story: very high quality production). Pre-internet, it’s amazing what Bayer packed into one page, and how ahead of its time it was. This specific spread A classic example of twentieth century Modernist book design, the "World Geographic Atlas" was published by the Container Corporation of America in 1953 to commemorate their twenty-fifth anniversary. It was never made commercially available. Its graphs, charts and maps designed by CCA art director Herbert Bayer and his associates are still visually arresting over fifty years later. Slide 6: Edward Tufte Edward Rolf Tufte (born March 14, 1942) is an American statistician and professor emeritus of [2] political science, statistics, and computer science at Yale University. He is noted for his writings on information design and as a pioneer in the field of data visualization.[3] Pioneer in terms of sense of scale in data visualization. If you are thinking in terms of a website, large scale would be big data content, medium scale = web pages, small scale = menus within a page. Tufte encourages the use of data-rich illustrations that presented all available data. When such illustrations are examined closely, every data point has a value, but when they are looked at more generally, only trends and patterns can be observed. Tufte suggests these macro/micro readings be presented in the space of an eye-span, in the high resolution format of the printed page, and at the unhurried pace of the viewer's leisure. Source: www.edwardtufte.com Slide 7: Conceptual Mapping Form always is driven by content. What concepts / ideas / information needs to be communicated? Which form best communicates that? University of Michigan physics professor Mark Newman makes cartograms that resize the states based on their population. The states are colored red or blue to indicate whether a majority of their voters voted for the Republican candidate, Donald Trump, or the Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, respectively. There is significantly more red on this map than there is blue, but that is in some ways misleading: the election was much closer than you might think from the balance of colors, and in fact Clinton won slightly more votes than Trump overall. The explanation for this apparent paradox, as pointed out by many people, is that the map fails to take account of the population distribution. It fails to allow for the fact that the population of the red states is on average significantly lower than that of the blue ones. The blue may be small in area, but they represent a large number of voters, which is what matters in an election.