Making the Unseen Visible

Themes and examples examined in this chapter discuss the fast growing field of visualization. First, basic terms: data, information, knowledge, dimensions, and variables are discussed before going into the visualization issues. The next part of the text overviews some of the basics in visualization techniques: data-, information-, and knowledge-visualization, and tells about tools and techniques used in visualization such as data mining, clusters and biclustering, concept mapping, knowledge maps, network visualization, Web-search result visualization, open source intelligence, visualization of the Semantic Web, visual analytics, and tag cloud visualization. This is followed by some remarks on music visualization. The next part of the chapter is about the meaning and the role of visualization in various kinds of presentations. Discussion relates to concept visualization in visual learning, visualization in education, collaborative visualization, professions that employ visualization skills, and well-known examples of visualization that progress science. Comments on cultural heritage knowledge visualization conclude the chapter.

Digital and Traditional Illustration

Traditional and computing-based illustrations make a great part of our everyday experience. This part of the book examines how traditional illustration types have found their continuation in computing-based media, even when the products mimic the old appearance. The next part includes several projects addressed to the reader and illustrated by student solutions, which refer to various fields of interests or areas of activities and apply selected illustration techniques.

Metaphorical Communication about Nature

Metaphors are present in our thoughts and make invisible concepts perceivable. The metaphorical way of perceptual imaging is discussed in this chapter, particularly the use of art and graphic metaphors for concept visualization. We may describe with metaphors the structure and the relations among several kinds of data. Metaphors may represent mathematical equations or geometrical curves and thus make abstract ideas visible. Most metaphors originate from biology-inspired thinking. Nature-derived metaphors support data visualization, information and knowledge visualization, data mining, Semantic Web, swarm computing, cloud computing, and serve as the enrichment of interdisciplinary models. This chapter examines examples of combining metaphorical visualization with artistic principles, and then describes the metaphorical way of learning and teaching with art and graphic metaphors aimed at improving one’s power of conveying meaning, integrating art and science, and visualizing knowledge.

Pretenders and Misleaders in Product Design

Meaningful messages may be conveyed in product design with the use of pretenders as the carriers of hidden messages; they refer to visual practices in design, architecture, and visualization. For this reason, they may be useful for working projects in further chapters. The notions of iconic objects, or iconcity of an object, make a basis of product semantics. Proper design versus pretenders, misleaders, informers, double-duty gadgets, and multitasking tools are discussed and then contrasted with the notion of camouflage.

Semiotic Content of Visuals and Communication

The semiotic content of visual design makes a foundation for non-verbal communication applied to practice, especially for visualizing knowledge. The ways signs convey meaning define the notion of semiotics. After inspection of the notions of sign systems, codes, icons, and symbols further text examines how to tie a sign or symbol to that for which it stands, combine images, and think figuratively or metaphorically. Further text introduces basic information about communication through metaphors, analogies, and about the scientific study of biosemiotics, which examines communication in living organisms aimed at conveying meaning, communicating knowledge about natural processes, and designing the biological data visualization tools.

Visual Approach to Translating Data

This chapter examines some of the tools that enable a visual approach to translating data, beginning with a comparison of the use of a computer versus pencil in visual communication. A short note follows, discussing the evolution of imaging with the use of computing: the history of computers and then some examples of graphic display and early computer-generated art works. This is followed by a discussion of the basic ways of graphical display of data and strategies for visual problem solving in the context of art and design. Thoughts on visual translation of data include an introduction to computer simulation. Examples of computer simulation and evolutionary computing conclude the chapter.

Communication through Many Senses

Sensory messages are examined as electromagnetic waves clearly identified by our senses, consisting of interacting electric and magnetic currents or fields and having distinctive wavelengths, energy, and frequency. Further text discusses modes of gathering information and communication that include sensory responses to electromagnetic waves, visible vibrations exemplified by cymatics, the pitch response, the senses of vision, smell, touch, and taste, all of them further expanded by the developments in current technologies. The sense of numbers is examined next, involving numerical and verbal cognition and communication with the use of numerals. Sensitivity, spatial abilities, and the threshold of sensory information make a part of the issues about biology-inspired computational solutions for enhancing our particular or synesthetic abilities, and the role of imagination in biology-inspired research and technology, learning, and teaching. The role of the sensory input in art, which pertains in some extent to individual curiosity and sensibility, concludes the chapter.

Articulation and Translation of Meaning

Notions of articulation and translation pertain to a great deal of concepts and events described in this book such as communication, cognition, and computing, so they will return as themes for discussion in chapters that follow. It seems particular areas of interest associated with ostensibly unrelated disciplines may have some common features. Both the articulation of units and translation of a meaning or a structure may hold common traits. Inquiring into concepts of articulation and translation may be considered the way of exploring the meaning. The articulation is discussed as units combined into complete structures and thus meaningfully formulated. The further text includes examples of double and triple articulation of signs in languages, programs, and several other fields. The concept of translation—another common thread interweaving distinctive processes and events—may include translation from nature to art (with the use of technology), as well as many forms of visual, verbal, and numeral translation. Two-way translation is discussed, from nature to idea and production and from products to human perception and creation.

The Intelligent Agents

Tools available for enhancing and sharing knowledge include intelligent agents, Augmented Reality (AR), and Virtual Reality (VR), among other solutions and paradigms. Collaborative computing became possible due to the advances in social networking, collaborative virtual environments, multi-touch screen-based technologies, as well as ambient, ubiquitous, and wearable computing. Examples of simulations in various domains include virtual computing machines, transient public displays of the data, mining for patterns in data, and visualizations of past events with the use of immersive technologies, virtual reality, and augmented reality. Further discussion relates to the tools for creating and publishing interactive 3D media and the Second Life culture.

Cognitive Processes Involved in Visual Thought

Cognitive thinking is discussed here in terms of processes involved in visual thought and visual problem solving. This chapter recapitulates basic information about human cognition, cognitive structures, and perceptual learning in relation to visual thought. It tells about some ideas in cognitive science, cognitive functions in specific parts of the brain, reviews ideas about thinking visually and verbally, critical versus creative thinking, components of creative performance, mental imagery, visual reasoning, and mental images. Imagery and memory, visual intelligence, visual intelligence tests, and multiple intelligences theory make further parts of the chapter. This is followed by some comments on cognitive development, higher order thinking skills, visual development of a child, the meaning of student art in the course of visual development, and the role of computer graphics in visual development.