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Astral Projection: Theories of Metaphor, Philosophies of Science, and the Art of Scientific Visualization

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Astral Projection: Theories of Metaphor, Philosophies of Science, and the Art of Scientific Visualization ASTRAL PROJECTION: THEORIES OF METAPHOR, PHILOSOPHIES OF SCIENCE, AND THE ART OF SCIENTIFIC VISUALIZATION by DONNA J. COX, M.F.A. A thesis submitted to the University of Plymouth In partial fulfillment for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Planetary Collegium Advisor: Professor Roy Ascott December 2008 Ml Donna J, Cox, M.F.A. Astral Projection: Theories of Metaphor, Philosophies of Science, and the Art of Scientific Visualization This thesis provides an intellectual context for my work in computational scientific visualization for large-scale public outreach in venues such as digital- dome planetarium shows and high-definition public television documentaries. In my associated practicum, a DVD that provides video excerpts, 1 focus especially on work I have created with my Advanced Visualization Laboratory team at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (Champaign, Illinois) from 2002-2007. 1 make three main contributions to knowledge within the field of computational scientific visualization. Firstly, I share the unique process 1 have pioneered for collaboratively producing and exhibiting this data-driven art when aimed at popular science education. The message of the art complements its means of production: Renaissance Team collaborations enact a cooperative paradigm of evolutionary sympathetic adaptation and co-creation. Secondly, 1 open up a positive, new space within computational scientific visualization's practice for artistic expression—especially in providing a theory of digi-epistemology that accounts for how this is possible given the limitations imposed by the demands of mapping numerical data and the computational models derived from them onto visual forms. I am concerned not only with liberating artists to enrich audience's aesthetic experiences of scientific visualization, to contribute their own vision, but also with conceiving of audiences as co-creators of the aesthetic significance of the work, to re-envision and re-circulate what they encounter there. Even more commonly than in the age of traditional media, on-line social computing and digital tools have empowered the public to capture and repurpose visual metaphors, circulating them within new contexts and telling new stories with them. Thirdly, I demonstrate the creative power of visaphors (see footnote, p. 1) to provide novel embodied experiences through my practicum as well as my thesis discussion. Specifically, I describe how the visaphors my Renaissance Teams and I create enrich the Environmentalist Story of Science, essentially promoting a counter-narrative to the Enlightenment Story of Science through articulating how humanity participates in an evolving universal consciousness through our embodied interaction and cooperative interdependence within nested, self-producing (autopoetic) systems, from the micro- to the macroscopic. This contemporary account of the natural world, its inter-related systems, and their dynamics may be understood as expressing a creative and generative energy—a kind of consciousness-that transcends the human yet also encompasses it. Tabic of Contents iii Title Page V Abstract vii Table of Contents ix List of Illustrations xi Acknowledgements xiii Author's Declaration I Preface Conlribulions to New ICnovvledge in Scienlific Visualization Arts 9 Practicum Pocket DVDs: Compilation and Black Holes Digital-Dome Show II Overview 19 Detail I. Compilation DVD: General Visaphor Sequences (visaphors on their own) and Virtual Tools; and Supplemental Show DVD Excerpts (visaphors used in feature-length shows, some with surrounding cuts) II. Career History in Large-Scale Public Outreach, 1996-2008 29 Thesis 31 Introduction 49 Chapter 1 The Evolution of Scientific Visualization: Shifting Paradigms from Representing to Constructing Reality 61 Chapter 2 The Scientific Visualization Arts: Collaborative Methods, Data Transformations, and Design Strategies 109 Chapter 3 Scientific Visualization in Translation: Understanding Visaphors as Metaphorical Interactions and Autopoetic Systems 129 Chapter 4 An Emergent Scientific Tradition: Visaphorizing Our Evolving Consciousness 157 Chapter 5 Scientific Semiotics: Mapping Matter, Making Meaning, Emerging Myth 199 Appendix List 269 References vn List or Illustrations Figure Page 1. Scientific Visualization of Thunderstorm 40 2. Information Visualization of Genomics 40 3. Information Visualization of Text Data 41 4. Colored Glyph Tornado Montage 72 5. Color Legend for Tornado Visualization 72 6. Tornado Glyphs Showing Microphysical Variables 73 7. Evolution of the Eariy Universe AMR 74 8. AVL Software Application Examples 82 9. AVL Visualization Pipeline 83 10. NSF NET Visualization Study 88 11. NCSA Passive Stereo Theater 91 12. Denver Museum (DMNS) Dome Theater (Gates Planetarium) 92 13. Dome-Master: DMNS Digital Dome 93 14. Four-Way Simultaneous Virtual Director"^" Collaboration 96 15. Virtual Director*^"' Avatars on a Camera Path 99 16. Hayden Planetarium at AMNH 102 17. IntelliBadge'^'^ Visualization Displays 115 18. Garden Metaphor Above and Bar Graph Below 115 19. Mobility of Visaphors in Print and 4IC Stereo 121 20. First Star Goes Supernova 136 21. Error Bars showing range of approximation 158 22. Monterey Bay Ocean Visaphor 162 23. Virtual Flight from Milky Way to Virgo Cluster 166 24. Flight to the Milky Way Galactic Center 167 25. Colliding Galaxies Color Comparison 179 26. Cinematic Scientific Visualization 182 27. Space and Time Location Ranges of Visaphor Sequences 184 IX Acknowledgements In acknowledgment of the guidance from Professor Roy Ascott and my mentors at the University of Plymouth, Professors Mike Phillips and Michael Punt; I recognize the support from the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the founding Director Larry Smarr; former Director Daniel Reed; and Director Thom Dunning and Executive Director Danny Powell; and to the interdisciplinary inspiration of Dr. Roger Malina and colleagues from Leonardo and SIGGRAPH communities. In recognition to the important contributions and hard work of my AVL Renaissance Team, many of whom are mentioned in this document: Stuart Levy, for his patience and integrity; Alex Betts, Matthew Hall, Jeff Carpenter, and Deanna Spivey; former team members Marcus Thiebaux, Erik Wesselak, and Lome Leonard. In deep appreciation of my long-term collaborators and colleagues who have helped me along this journey to converge art and science: George Francis, Michael Norman, Tom DeFanti, Tom Lucas, Mel Slater, Dan Sandin, Ellen Sandor, Janine Fron and Mike Ross. Not only have these collaborators provided encouragement over the years, they have collectively contributed many ideas captured here. In special recognition lo Bob Patterson who has been an endless source of optimism and creativity as both my partner and Renaissance Team collaborator. Without his efforts, many visaphors would not have been possible. I am deeply grateful to my daughter, Elizabeth, who has endured and encouraged my academic obsessions throughout her life. Her wisdom and love amazes me. I offer special thanks to goddesses, Monica Royal and Jan Kalmar, close friends in the making of this dissertation, who remind me that there is more to life than work. I recognize the on-going determination, work ethic and love provided lo me by my family: Mama, Grandma, aunt Mert, uncle Jack, brother Jimmy, and his wife Vicki; and to Joy and the Patterson extended family. 1 acknowledge Kelly Searsmith for her deep spirit and hard work that enabled me to finish this thesis. This work emerges from a collective fabric and force of women and men, loo many to mention here, a collective consciousness, to whom I am deeply grateful. XI Author's Declaration At no time during the registration for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy has the author been registered for any other University award without prior agreement of the Graduate Committee. All of the materials submitted here are owned by author or the author has permission to submit these materials as part of the thesis. A program of advanced study was undertaken, which included research, annual monitoring, residency, and thesis in written and practicum form (included here). No coursework was required. To my knowledge, all academic and residency requirements have been satisfied for this PhD program of research. See Appendix for selected list of Donna Cox publications and presentations of scholarship (or presentations of other forms of creative and performing work) 2000-2007. Word Count (of main body of thesis): 59,645 words xm Preface In this thesis, I offer an extended account of my unique academic arts and science research practice, in which 1 collaborate with professionals from a variety of disciplines to create and present animated computational scientific visualizations—what 1 call visaphors'-as part of large-scale outreach projects through high-definition documentary television programming and ultra-high resolution shows for new, high-tech museum venues such as digital domes. In the words of Tom Lucas, a collaborator of many years and principal of Thomas Lucas Productions,^ my work is focused on "giving millions of people a glimpse of the processes that shape our universe" (Lucas, 2008; see Appendix). I make three claims to contributing new knowledge to the domain of computational scientific visualization through this thesis: • 1 share the unique process 1 have pioneered for collaboratively producing and exhibiting computational scientific visualization for the broader public in
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