Science meets art

In another post relating to visualisation in the sciences check out some interesting visual projects based on better understanding aspects of science. This is Visualization Challenge sponsored by science magazine is run to, "promote cutting-edge efforts to visualize scientific data, principles, and ideas" The challenge covered different media: Photography, Illustration, Informational Posters and Graphics, Interactive games and videos.


Check out some of the resulting entrants in a slideshow here on the BBC website.


Following is an 'Honorable Mention' in the Video section. A nice blend of video, graphics and music to give an entertaining and, more importantly, an informative presentation.

Data visualisation debate featuring David McCandless and Neville Brody

It's good to see a healthy debate about the current trend of 'making data beautiful', especially on mainstream news programmes such as Newsnight. Highlighted here on the Creative review site, the argument says: is data visualisation an aid or hindrance to understanding.

The debate on Newsnight can be seen here and starts at 26:05.

Of course visualisation of data should aid communication, but for me, McCandless advocates the pretty picture road to infographics to the point where we can't tell what the main idea of the graphic is and needs further voice off explanation! I'm happy to report Brody was skeptical of the sorts of graphics McCandless creates and furthermore managed to plug his Anti-Design festival on 18-26.09.10. Something McCandless will no doubt find very unpretty.

More rants on infocrapics here, and here.