Hi,

In this episode we talk about Data Sculptures, also known as Physical Visualization. We invite Pierre Dragicevic and Yvonne Jansen (from the Aviz Lab at INRIA in Paris) to talk about their experiments with physical bar charts and their fantastic collections of physical visualizations.

Pierre and Yvonne give several demos you can see on our recorded video. Make sure you don’t miss Pierre giving a real-time demo of Jacques Bertin’s reorderable matrix!

Episode Chapters

• 00:00:00 Intro
• 00:01:08 Topic: Data Sculptures with Yvonne Jansen and Pierre Dragicevic
• 00:04:01 Studies on legibility of physical 3D data visualizations
• 00:12:45 Pros and cons of rapid prototyping vs. subsurface engraving
• 00:16:57 Broader perspective: How did Pierre and Yvonne get Pierre and Yvonne’s motivation, and general characterization of the field
• 00:22:04 Their project collections at: http://www.aviz.fr/Research/PassivePhysicalVisualizations and http://www.aviz.fr/Research/ActivePhysicalVisualizations
• 00:27:26 Bertin’s reorderable matrix
• 00:35:00 Slow data
• 00:37:30 Back to Bertin and physical manpulation of data
• 00:39:04 Social aspects
• 00:39:47 Future perspective
• 00:41:21 Digital fabrication techniques
• 00:49:45 Online services
• 00:50:27 FabLabs
• 00:54:17 Accessibility aspects
• 00:55:33 Practical applications
• 00:57:54 Shapeshifting displays and materials
• 01:05:46 Early examples and the great books from W. Brinton
• 01:09:20 Wrap up

Links:

• (Forgotten) Brinton’s book on Graphic Presentation
• Compostable and water-soluble 3d printing 
• PLA Printing (most environmentally friendly material made from corn starch or sugar)
• MIT Shape Displays
• Programmable matter (with demo)