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We have Pedro Cruz and John Wihbey on the show to talk about their beautiful project, the Simulated Dendrochronology of U.S. Immigration. There are many ways that immigration can be represented visually, but Pedro and John came up with a very compelling one: they use the metaphor of tree rings to show how migration patterns of people to the United States have changed over time. The final piece is utterly beautiful and evocative: we are the product of many layers of immigration.

On the show we talk about how they came up with this idea, the implementation of the visualization, the attempts they tried before producing the final version, and the role of metaphors in visualization. Make sure you take a closer look at the visualization before listening!

And enjoy the show!

Links

• Project Page and Video
• Pedro Cruz
• John Wihbey
• George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By
• Andrew Ortony,  “Metaphor and Representation” in Metaphor and Thought
• Donna Cox “The Art and Science of Visualization: Metaphorical Maps and Cultural Models”
• John’s upcoming book: The Social Fact (MIT Press, April 2019)