1. Data Visualization in Research and in Teaching; or,
The Long Arc of Visual Display
University of Pennsylvania
Penn Digital Humanities Forum
November 20, 2013
Lauren F. Klein
Georgia Institute of Technology
lauren.klein@lmc.gatech.edu

2. http://feltron.com/

3. Nick Felton, The 2006 Feltron Annual Report
http://feltron.com/ar06_01.html

4. Nick Felton, The 2012 Feltron Annual Report
http://feltron.com/ar12_04.html

5. http://daytum.com/

6. Nick Felton, The 2012 Feltron Annual Report
http://feltron.com/ar12_04.html

7. http://theyrule.net/

8. http://hint.fm/wind/

9. Paul Rucker, Proliferation
http://paulrucker.com/projects/proliferation/

10. S.W.A.M.P Collective
Spore 1.1

11. “Graphics reveal data” (13).

12. From The Works of the Honorable
Robert Boyle (1744)

13. http://dhdebates.gc.cuny.edu/debates/text/18

14. Joseph Priestley, A New Chart of History (1769)

15. “If the reader carry his eye vertically, he will see the contemporary state of all the empires
subsisting in the world, at any particular time. He may observe which were then rising, which
were flourishing, and which were upon the decline. Casting his eye a little on each side of the
vertical line, he will see what empires had lately gone off the stage, and which were about to
come on.”

16. Thomas Jefferys, A Chart of Universal History (1753)

17. Nicolas Lenglet du Fresnoy, Tables chronologiques de l’histoireuniverselle (1729)

18. Visualization as “Cognitive Enhancement”
•
•
•
•
•
•
Increased memory / processing resources
Reduced search time
Enhanced pattern recognition
Perceptual inference (much faster than logical)
Use of perceptual attention mechanisms for
monitoring
Encoding information in a manipulable form
-- Stuart Card et al., Readings in Information
Visualization: Using Vision to Think(Morgan
Kaufman, 1999)
h/t to Chris Sula for the reference

19. William Playfair, from The Commercial and Political Atlas (1786)

20. “On inspecting any one of these Charts attentively, a sufficiently distinct impression
will be made, to remain unimpaired for a considerable time, and the idea which does
remain will be simple and complete.”

21. William Playfair, from An Inquiry into the Permanent Cause of the Decline and Fall of
Wealthy and Powerful Nations (1805)

22. William Playfair, “CHART, Shewing at One View The Price of The Quarter of Wheat, &
Wages of Labour by the Week, from The Year 1565 to 1821” (1822)

23. “The minds of men, the boundaries of nations, their laws and
relations with each other, are all in a state of change, and
commerce must feel the consequences of those events of
which it has been a principal cause.
“Should those revolutions and partitions already effected, or
about to be attempted, produce, as usual, political
fermentation in proportion to their importance, Europe may
probably be convulsed with war for fifty years to come. The
last century has been the century of arts and commerce, this
newly commenced may then be that of war and contention. If
it turns out so, a picture of the past will be a valuable thing, if,
on the contrary, commerce should continue its progress, this
will make the first part of a great whole, which, when
completed on some future day, will be a most valuable work.”
William Playfair, “Preface to the Third Edition,” The Commercial and Political
Atlas, 3rd edition(1801).

24. “It is not only of importance that this species of information
should be handed down, but also that it should go down in
such a form and manner as that any person might even,
though a native of another country, understand the nature of
the business delineated.”
William Playfair, “Preface to the Third Edition,” The Commercial and Political Atlas,
3rd edition(1801).

25. GregorAisch
Data Insights: A Visualization

26. Visualization insight
•
“We discover unimagined effects, and we challenge imagined
ones.”
--William Cleveland, Visualizing Data (1993)

27. Visualization insight
•
•
“We discover unimagined effects, and we challenge imagined
ones.”
--William Cleveland, Visualizing Data (1993)
“I see it now. Aha!”
--Martin Wattenberg, on data visualization (2007)

28. Visualization insight
•
•
•
“We discover unimagined effects, and we challenge imagined
ones.”
--William Cleveland, Visualizing Data (1993)
“I see it now. Aha!”
--Martin Wattenberg, on data visualization (2007)
It “forces” us to see.
--Stephen Ramsay, “In Praise of Pattern” (1995).

29. Thomas Jefferson
1783 Catalog of Books

30. Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of
Virginia(1787 edition)

31. “A Comparative View of the
Quadrupeds of Europe and of
America.” Notes on the State
of Virginia (1781-5)

32. “Vegetables.” Notes on the
State of Virginia (1781-5)

33. “Birds of Virginia.” Notes on the
State of Virginia(1781-5)

34. A page of Thomas Jefferson’s
Farm-book, ca. 1774.

35. A page of Thomas Jefferson’s
Farm-book, ca. 1774.

36. Thomas Jefferson,
“Agreement with James
Hemings” (1793)

37. http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu
/founders/default.xqy?keys=TSJNinfo-search

38. http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu
/founders/TSJN-01-27-02-0127

41. David Sparks, “How Congress Uses Twitter”
http://www.psmag.com/politics/how-congress-uses-twitter-16338/

44. Mark Hansen and Ben Rubin
Movable Type

45. How to tell a new story …
… in space:
• Where did events take place, or objects originate?
• How did people, objects, or ideas circulate?
• What is the composition of a place (real or imagined)?
Tools
•
•
•
•
•
•
Google Maps
Geocommons
Neatline
HyperCities
OpenLayers
ArcGIS
Mitch Fraas, Mapping Books
http://mappingbooks.blogspot.com/

46. How to tell a new story …
… over time:
• How did an event (or sequence of events) unfold?
• How did an idea (or sequence of ideas) develop?
• What were the touchpoints of a particular movement?
Tools
•
•
•
•
Dipity
Timeline.js
Neatline
TimeFlow
David McClure, The Battle of Chancellorsville
http://hotchkiss.neatline.org/neatlineexhibits/show/battle-of-chancellorsville/

47. How to tell a new story …
… across networks:
• How were people connected?
• How did content travel?
• Through what pathways were ideas exchanged?
Tools
•
•
•
•
•
Circos
Gephi
Cytoscape
NodeXL
D3.js
Northeastern University NULab, Viral Texts
http://www.viraltexts.org/

48. How to tell a new story …
… in language:
• How often does a certain word, phrase, or theme appear?
• When did a certain word, phrase, or theme become prevalent?
• What are the most common themes in an archive?
Tools
•
•
•
•
•
•
Wordle
ManyEyes
Google Ngram Viewer
Voyant
WordSeer
MALLET
Sarah Lohman, Nutmeg, Mace, Cinnamon, Clove
http://www.fourpoundsflour.com/the-gallerydata-visualization-of-a-timeline-of-taste/

49. How to tell a new story …
… through charts:
•
•
•
Tableau Public (PC only)
Google Fusion Tables
D3.js
Also, tools for preparing/cleaning data:
•
•
•
Microsoft Excel (w/ search/replace)
Data Wrangler
Google Refine

50. Great Tools for Data Visualization
http://www.idea.org/blog/2012/10/25/great-tools-for-data-visualization/

51. A Carefully Selected List of Recommended Tools
http://selection.datavisualization.ch/

52. Data Visualization in Research and in Teaching; or,
The Long Arc of Visual Display
University of Pennsylvania
Penn Digital Humanities Forum
November 20, 2013
Lauren F. Klein
Georgia Institute of Technology
lauren.klein@lmc.gatech.edu