Mapping Affinitites

Mapping Affinities: Democratizing Data Visualization The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Rodighiero, Dario. 2021. Mapping Affinities: Democratizing Data Visualization. English edition. Geneva: Métis Presses. https:// www.metispresses.ch/en/mapping-affinities Published Version https://www.metispresses.ch/en/mapping-affinities Citable link https://nrs.harvard.edu/URN-3:HUL.INSTREPOS:37368046 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA Mapping Affinities MAPPING AFFINITIES Democratizing Data Visualization Dario Rodighiero MētisPresses ACCESS TO THE DIGITAL VERSION Log in to the MētisPress website and access the book’s page. Click on the “Version numérique” button and you will be redirected to the digital book online. In addition to the printed edition, the enriched digital version gives you access to slideshows, external links and maps. Throughout this book, you will encounter the hexagonal glyphs ⬡ and ⬢, which indicate additional content in the digital version. © MētisPresses 2021 www.metispresses.ch Any reproduction, even partial, is forbidden All rights reserved for all countries ISBN: 978-2-94-0563-99-9 CONTENTS "" Preface "# Introduction "$ Metrics of Science %# Visualizing Affinities &# The Case Study of ENAC School &' Participatory Design (' Technical and Moral Constraints '$ Visual Principles ")# Introducing the Reader """ Validation of the Visual Method "%" Interaction in Public Spaces "#" Conclusions "&" Laboratory Acronyms "&$ References "$$ Acknowledgements "$* Credits I disegni non sono decorazioni, sono parole. " ENZO MARI, &'&' We never look at just one thing ; we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves. " JOHN BERGER, #$%& PREFACE A case study lies at the heart of Mapping Af- community in question and even audiences fnities by Dario Rodighiero : that of a highly beyond the confnes of that community. refned project that sought to map the research The legacy scientometric and bibliomet- underway within EPFL, the Federal Institute ric systems that have come into common of Technology in Lausanne, in Switzerland. usage within universities over the course Yet the case study in question is much of the past few decades (in the company more than a mere case study. It raises pro- of Science Citation Indices, h-indices, found questions regarding research, organi- and Impact Factor calculations) are rea- zational structures, social dynamics, knowl- sonably good at describing a thin slice edge networks, the pathways followed by of the research pie : the published record, researcher careers, and university govern- patterns of citation and authorship, the ance. In doing so, it opens up a broad set of allocation of grants, and the composi- perspectives pointed to in the book’s subti- tion of research teams. Like trusty blood- tle : Democratizing Data Visualization. When hounds, they follow the traces of that paper it comes to data, Rodighiero demonstrates (and, later, pixel) trail that, in their 1979 that the word “democracy” implies a multi- seminal study, Latour and Woolgar iden- faceted approach to mapping and visuali- tifed as the fulcrum of laboratory life. zation : an approach built upon scrutinizing Mapping Affnities addresses the larger, data sets with a critical and creative eye ; more complex rest of the pie. Scientometrics understanding visualization as a complex, and bibliometrics tell us little as regards interactive form of storytelling ; and attend- the shape or texture of a research commu- ing to the differing audiences and modes of nity, its network of connections to other engagement that a given data visualization intramural or extramural research groups, strives to accommodate. The result is a com- or the balance between the roles played pelling research account of community map- by individual researchers and the units to ping less as a product than as a process whose which they belong. Moreover, because of successes and failures have to be examined their narrow concern with publications, as a function of their ability to engage the they tend to be retrospective in nature and to neglect unpublished and informal modes to the surrounding community. And in order of research interaction. How might research to achieve these goals, they must deliver or collaborations be described not “after these experiences in multiple modalities, that fact” but as emergent or potential for- from the online to the on-site, spatialized, mations (i. e. with an eye towards predictive and embodied. Data democratization is and / or recommended outcomes) ? And how ultimately achieved by design, not thanks might one excavate beneath the surfaces of only to the transparency with which data authorial order and citation networks into is devised, analyzed, and disseminated. the stratifed layers of knowledge forms and the communities that animate them ? This is where Dario Rodighiero’s focus on + JEFFREY SCHNAPP networks based upon affnity (rather than Founder and faculty director of metaLAB(at)Harvard; Carl A. infuence, impact, or formal collaboration) Pescosolido Professor of Romance Languages and Litera- tures and of Comparative Literature; Faculty co-director transports the book’s reader towards a richer of Berkman Center for Internet and Society; Affiliate of understanding of how a research commu- the Department of Architecture at the GSD nity can be described, represented, and transformed into an object of experience that is performed by that very community. The ultimate moral of the story that unfolds in Mapping Affnities involves the preponderant role performed by design, which is to say designers, in the success- ful mapping and visualization of complex communities like universities. Designers are challenged on multiple fronts. They need to further nourish and enhance con- ventional institutional data sets in order to render them suffciently rich and complex. They then need to shape these data into experiences that are meaningful to multiple audiences : from a university’s leadership to its researchers and students Mapping 12 Affinities INTRODUCTION Today, organizations are more than ever uses indicators to measure their employees’ complex systems. They are so large, rami- performance. Today, however, two inter- fed, and intertwined that their organic esting things happen : one is that indicators structure seems like a tangle of activities. are moving from tabular to graphical form, Day by day organization members contrib- the other being that the same indicators ute to keeping these structures alive with are at the disposal of everybody as a form their actions, behaviors, and thoughts. of transparency and self-examination. Organizations rely on these daily practices. Nowadays, performance not only inter- Sociology aims to untangle the network ests corporations but also universities. of daily practices through the analysis In academia, scholars are often assessed of the digital traces that members leave on through their publications using the h-index the cloud by using desktop computers, or the impact factor. Directors use such met- smartphones, Wi-Fi networks, identity rics to recruit scholars and, in turn, the cards, and online services. The challenge same scholars try to improve these metrics is to recompose structures and behav- to be positively evaluated. This bidirec- iors using the data that its members left tional use clearly shows that academia behind, in various forms and places. adheres to performance-based logic. Understanding from daily activities how Current academic policies do not usu- an organization fuctuates deeply interests ally take into account a dimension that the management. The way in which employ- plays a critical role in scholarly dynam- ees work is fundamental to making deci- ics, the affnity between scholars. sions and planning the future. In particular, This book focuses on the concept of managers are interested in having a global affnity and the ways to visually repre- perspective to optimize the performance sent it. Affnities are diversifed and take of their employees as much as possible. many forms : from common interests to The concept of performance deals with committee memberships, from teaching the challenge of obtaining the very best from activities to publication co-authoring. the organization, and management often Affnities are also multiple as scholars share different kinds of them at the same The metric of affnities has to be, therefore, time, reinforcing their overall ties. at the disposal of the whole collective to vis- Affnities can be classifed as actual and ually lead individuals in personal choices. potential. A certain number of potential aff- This book is the result of fve years work- nities indicates a predictable tie between ing at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de scholars ; these affnities might be represent- Lausanne (EPFL), during which the problem ative for common interests, interdisciplinar- of mapping affnities was addressed through ity, intellectual culture, professional career, a design approach. This problem was tack- or scientifc journals, conferences, and com- led by visual means, which represent the mittees. Potential affnities become actual only solution to manage the enormous mass ones when a collaboration takes place ;

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