[Data-Mongers] Noon Monday, 11/15 Informatics Talk - R. Schenk - Data Physicalization

[Holly Miller]

Dear fellow Informatics-inclined folks,

We are starting the Informal Informatics talks again. We are changing the day and time for this season so people who couldn't make it at the previous time will be able to attend. The first Informal Lunch Talk will be held Monday, Novemeber 15 in Lillie 103 on the MBL campus (map). Ryan Schenk from the Center for Library and Informatics will present a talk entitled "Data Physicalization."

Summary: 
The visual representation of scientific data has become an increasingly active area of research. In addition to being beautiful, data visualizations are often the most effective way to communicate and analyze large, multifaceted data sets. Despite these capabilities, however, data visualization techniques have their limitations, the most glaring of these is the relegation to two dimensions— either on paper or on a computer screen. Confining visualizations to the realm of flat paper eases distribution and comprehension, but what is gained in convenience and cognition is sacrificed in experience. This talk will explore the process of creating  TaxaTron, an interactive sculpture installation that transforms biodiversity data from a "hard" science into a delicate, tangible, temporal experience. 

Bio:
Ryan Schenk is an application architect, developer, and UI designer on the Biology of Aging project in the Center for Library and Informatics, as well as a New Media artist. While writing cutting edge informatics software, he has displayed interactive and kinetic work in galleries, museums, and academic institutions. He is proficient at writing distributed data processing systems and operating a machine lathe.

The Monday Lunch talks will be every other Monday. We have created a wiki page for these and other Informatics events in Woods Hole. Please consider giving a talk, we have lot's of openings in 2011! Let us know if you about any informatics related event and we will add it to this page. Those of you who haven't subscribed to the Informatics discussion list, you might want to. Information on how to subscribe is on the wiki page above.

See you Monday!

Holly Miller 
hmiller at mbl.edu

Anne Thessen 
athessen at eol.org

Peter Mangiafico
peter at eol.org

Andy Maffei
Andrew Maffei 
amaffei at whoi.edu

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