Brad Tober /
Experimental Interface Lab

«Skydive / Le Antichità Romane

Skydive is a data visualization tool for mapping cross references within data sets. As an early prototype (implemented using Processing), Skydive uses the Twitter Search API as a data set and visualizes cross references within it (via hashtags) by using a hierarchical "droplet and cloud" metaphor. Once a search has been executed, a user can further manipulate the data returned (which then adjusts the visualization accordingly).

Skydive visualization of #designCross referenced hashtags included #architecture, #modernism, and #website.

Building upon parts of Skydive's core concept, Mapping the Colosseo and the Panteon through Le Antichità Romane is a static visualization of cross references of the Colosseo (Colosseum) and Panteon (Pantheon) throughout a collection of etchings of ancient Rome by printmaker Giovanni Battista Piranesi. This visualization uses value, pattern, directional arrows, and textual labels to identify relationships between pages of the collection (using image numbers that refer to Brown University's first edition digitization).

Mapping the Colosseo and the Panteon through Le Antichità RomaneFull visualization (left) and detail views (right)

Publications

Exhibitions

  • "School of Art and Design Faculty Exhibition." Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois (October 6, 2013–January 5, 2014).
  • "China VISAP (Visualization Arts Program) 2017." The Fourth China Visualization and Visual Analytics Conference, Qingdao, China (July 17–19, 2017).

Presentations

  • "Data Aesthetics." Sensory Overload: A Conference on Big Data and Data Perceptualization, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia (March 27, 2015).