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The world is complex, dynamic, multidimensional; the paper is static, flat. How are we to represent the rich visual world of experience and measurements on mere flatland?... Charts, diagrams, graphs, tables, guides, instructions, directions, and maps comprise an enormous accumulation of material... To envision information - and what bright and splendid visions can result - is to work at the intersection of image, word, number art.
from Tufte's Envisioning Information p. 9
(see bibliography)
Even though there are no numbers on the graph, the shape of each graph gives us some information about the unemployment rates in three different counties of New Jersey for a period of a year.
Assignment Exercises
Readings Lesson Plan using Glyphs
for Middle School -
creating a a Pumpkin Glyph
http://www.teachers.net/lessons
/posts/644.html
Web Resources These web resources have links
to data visualization sites.
Edward Tufte is the foremost expert in leading us to looking at new ways of representing multidimensional data. His three books: Envisioning Information, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, and Visual Explanations are not only beautifully crafted books, but also filled with informative and exciting new ways of data representation. I highly recommend each of them!!!
For the homework this week, the progression with these different graphs starts with the simple function graphs which represent one type of data and then adds more data in each step until the last exercise of glyphs which represent 10 data items at one time.
Exercises
1) pp. 409-410, Ex. 32, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42
8) Read the Lesson Plan using Glyphs for Middle School on creating a a Pumpkin Glyph
and critique your reaction to the pumpkin glyph reading and state if you would use that or a similar idea about glyphs in your classroom.
(http://www.teachers.net/lessons/posts/644.html)
Three Sites to give some information about Edward Tufte - the foremost leader in the field of data visualizationThe Data Artist - article on Tufte
http://www.salon.com/march97/tufte970310.htmlHow to Delight With Statistics - "Edward Tufte's books make train schedules irresistible." A review by Cullen Murphy
http://slate.msn.com/GoodWord/97-05-21/GoodWord.aspReview of Edward Tufte's books
http://public.logica.com/~stepneys/bib/nf/tufte.htmGlyphs in Crime VRML - even the recent TV show the District uses glyphs to represent data
http://wcr.sonoma.edu/v1n2/lodha.htmlInternet use of multiple data - this site has you click on an image and a little mpeg file downloads to explain the information
http://www.research.ibm.com/dx/proceedings/galloway/index.htm#fig2Pictures of Demos and Applications - interesting examples of data visualization
http://metallica.prakinf.tu-ilmenau.de/demos.html
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