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Code/Art Approaches to Data Visualization

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Research Methods for the Digital Humanities

Abstract

This chapter explores a code/art method to data visualization using a case study of the project Aperveillance: Watching with Open Data. The generative nature of coding affords a method for creating artistic visualizations that go beyond more traditional charts and graphs. What are the possibilities for leveraging the iterative nature of code in order to create visualizations that focus more on exploration than analysis and offer the chance to raise new questions? Whereas a more traditional approach to data visualization would seek to answer questions or create clearer explanations through the process of visualization, code/art visualizations instead aim to provoke further questions, such as those about the societal tensions between surveillance and privacy in the case study. In addition to explicating the underlying Digital Humanities methods associated with such a practice, this chapter offers a step-by-step guide showing how the Aperveillance project was created using the p5.js programming language.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Casey Reas and Chandler McWilliams, Form Code: In Design, Art, and Architecture (New York: Princeton Architecturel Press, 2010).

  2. 2.

    Viktor Mayer-Schönberger and Kenneth Cukier, Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think, First Mariner Books edition (Boston: Mariner Books, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014).

  3. 3.

    Michael Zimmer, “OkCupid Study Reveals the Perils of Big-Data Science,” Wired, May 14, 2016. Accessed April 12, 2017, https://www.wired.com/2016/05/okcupid-study-reveals-perils-big-data-science/.

  4. 4.

    Gregory Hornby et al., “Automated Antenna Design with Evolutionary Algorithms,” American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (2006), https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2006-7242.

  5. 5.

    Hartmut Bohnacker et al., Generative Design: Visualize, Program, and Create with Processing (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2012).

  6. 6.

    [ap-er-vay-lans]n. derives from the Latin “aper” meaning “open”, and “veiler” meaning “to watch.” In the context of this project, aperveillance means “open watching,” or a form of watching with open data.

  7. 7.

    Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, 2nd ed. (New York: Vintage Books, [1975] 1995); Peter Monaghan, “Watching the Watchers,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, 2006; Kirstie Ball, Kevin Haggerty, and David Lyon, eds., Routledge Handbook of Surveillance Studies 1. Paperback ed. Routledge International Handbooks (London: Routledge, 2012).

  8. 8.

    Gary T. Marx, “Surveillance Studies,” in International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (2015): 733–741, https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-08-097086-8.64025-4

  9. 9.

    Helen Nissenbaum, “Protecting Privacy in an Information Age: The Problem of Privacy in Public,” Law and Philosophy 17, no. 5/6 (November 1998): 559, https://doi.org/10.2307/3505189.

  10. 10.

    For more information on Automator for MacOS, see https://support.apple.com/guide/automator/welcome/mac.

  11. 11.

    Helen Nissenbaum, “Protecting Privacy in an Information Age: The Problem of Privacy in Public,” Law and Philosophy 17, no. 5/6 (November 1998): 559. https://doi.org/10.2307/3505189.

  12. 12.

    Jeremy Benthamn, Works of Jeremy Bentham (S.l. London: Forgotten Books, [1789] 2015); Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, 2nd ed. (New York: Vintage Books, [1975] 1995).

References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fitchburg State University, Fitchburg, MA, USA

    J. J. Sylvia IV

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  1. J. J. Sylvia IV
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Correspondence to J. J. Sylvia IV .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Levenberg Services, Inc., Bloomingburg, NY, USA

    lewis levenberg

  2. Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Tai Neilson

  3. The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, USA

    David Rheams

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Sylvia IV, J.J. (2018). Code/Art Approaches to Data Visualization. In: levenberg, l., Neilson, T., Rheams, D. (eds) Research Methods for the Digital Humanities. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96713-4_12

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