Week 9: Comparing Visualisation

Visualisation in Scientific Research

Visualisation in scientific research is mostly dominated by graphs and 3D animation renderings. The purposes of graphs are to provide a uniform method of communication that can easily be rescaled to compare to other research in forming connections and new theories. 3D models are helpful in realistic visualisation and can often visualise what scientists study but are difficult to see, for example microscopic subjects. A lot of scientific visualisations are merely appendages to extensive sets of data, research, discussion, and conclusions, and often not the main feature but are necessary for summaries and to collate information.

Visualisation in Communication of Science to the "Public Sphere"

Visualisation of science to the public often only features easy to understand infographics- which are the most effective in my opinion. Infographics are short, to the point, and don't include excessive details that the public may not understand, or may not care to understand. Often visualisation is much more focused on appearance and attractiveness of design, because that is what draws people who may not have enough interest in the information being presented to go searching for it and sifting through mounds of data that they have to interpret themselves. It's difficult to get the public interested in science because often they cannot see how it relates to them, do not understand it, generally do not care for it, and/or they don't know what to look for and what to care about because there is so much information- and research is often not general audience friendly to read or understand.
While I'm sure infographics and articles both have biases, I personally prefer infographics because it at least seems more like it's attempting to lay out the facts as opposed to using wording to manipulate a point of view.

Interactive Visualisation in VJing

Visualisation in VJ is often very abstract, which is probably the point. The visualisations are based on the creator's feelings and how they imagine what they're trying to communicate or what they feel things should look like. Digital media visualisations are good because they are a part of art, and therefore open to interpretation but also interesting insights to how someone else visualises a concept. In VJ especially it translates music which is something not visible and has no physical appearance. Therefore there are endless possibilities and interpretations.

In conclusion, there are many infinite ways to visualise things and visualisation can be applied in almost anything, whether to summarise data, communicate data to a new audience, visualise an intangible concept, or translate feelings, emotion, or imagination. Different forms of visualisation come from what they are trying to convey, and who they are trying to convey to.