Effy Fan
A kinetic data sculpture that re-envisions a dystopian world map with a force-directed structure base on social and technological datasets. This interactive installation aims on showing the relationship between each selected nations and raising the awareness of the missing data, the vulnerable data, and data abuse.
Description
In the long history of human’s discovery of the world, there have been many different versions of geographic world maps. As the fast development of technologies, the world map is getting more and more “accurate”. However, the most common flat world map we see today is still full of illusions. The United States is always in the center. Russia looks way bigger than it actually is. The current and historical maps were made with human’s vision towards the world at the time. Maps can be great tools for us to learn knowledge, but it can also be misleading with the things it chose to show. In the era of big data, is it possible to make a more “accurate” world map that minimizes the bias in showing information? Or due to unequal access to technology, it is more impossible. We cannot ignore the missing data, the vulnerable data, and data abuse. Therefore, for my thesis, I am investigating how data visualization can or cannot inform more “accurate” information. My path of investigation starts with building a physical mapping tool that re-envisions the world map using social and ecological datasets in order to raise the awareness of bias in data visualization.
Classes
Thesis