Code Based Data Visualization

In the fall of 2016 while working as a teaching assistant for a course on physical computing and data visualization I was inspired to develop a bit of simple code using Processing to map out different data sets. I got a preliminary version of the code working quickly, but I soon found that all the data sets I had were too small to be effective. After speaking with Andy Law, a professor at RISD, he recommended I try using a data set of airports he had. This exploration led me to develop a code that could generate North and South pole centric visualization of geographic data. The airports serves as strong reference point to establish most of the land masses in the world. After using this base line I added 3 additional data sets, Volcanogenic Massive Sulfide Deposits, Major Mineral Deposits and Nuclear Power Plants. Each of the resulting visualizations could be compared with another one to see correlations in the data set.

Unexpected Perspectives

The project drew comparisons between different geographic data sets. The example above compares the distribution of resources in North centric and to South centric views. Below is an overlay of air airpots and nuclear power plants. Each one is meant to expose unexpected relationships and provide new perspectives to approach the data.

Visual Interations

The early version of code created very abstract shapes and patterns. While I found these visually compelling, I wanted to created more meaningful and useful visualizations. The first version used lines extending from a central vertex, after which points were added to the end of each one. Eventually the lines were removed all together to reveal the map.

Parts of the code.

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