Bestiario (Santiago Ortiz, Miguel Cardoso, Tiago Henriques) presents Information Kinetics: EGOVIZ - A Series of Workshops with Manuel Lima, Fabien Girardin, Marcos Weskamp, Angela Zoss :: August 10-22, 2009 :: Arteleku, San Sebastian, Spain :: Call for Participation — Deadline: July 26 ::: email arteleku [at] gipuzkoa.net.

The objective of this workshop is to connect scientific vision with artistic expression via the visualisation of data. In present-day society we live with an overabundance of information. However, obtaining meaningful analysis or relevant reflection can be an especially hard task. Organising information, offering different perspectives, encouraging analysis or bringing that which seemed hidden to light, with the aim of catalysing meaningful reflection are tasks often faced by the artist, at times in the guise of a private investigator and at others armed only with intuition. It seems appropriate, therefore, to provide conceptual and technical tools that enable the artist to tackle their investigations from other perspectives.

INDIVIDUAL AND ENVIRONMENT

Data visualization Workshop: Historically, art and science share an interest for the study and representation of the individual and the environment. The relationship between individual and environment is less evident for both art and science, but it is equally important. Over the last few decades, in which the concepts of network and relationship have become relevant, there have been changes of vision and paradigm both in art and science with respect to interchanges in information in various scales, between the parts and the whole.

The visualization of information requires data, evidently. It is not, however, so obvious where to find them. We know –this is true- that there is an increasing amount of stored (and circulating) information about people, their relationships, and their local and global environments. Such data correspond to measurements or activities that leave a trace. The amount of information stored through both channels increases exponentially. The interest in reading such data without being overwhelmed by them has promoted a discipline that is situated in the barycentre of art, science and technology: the visualization of information.

In this workshop projects will be set up which work with individual and environment-related data that fit into some of the following groups:

Visualization of Information on Individuals (egoviz, in the case that a person presents his/her own information): In our technologised culture, an individual produces information and leaves digital traces in the Internet, in their own and other computers, and in many other devices. In ever more everyday cases, and thanks to web 2.0 services, a person may have digitalised information on his/her network of friends, travel, his/her reading, beliefs, astral charts, multiple conversations, states of morale and all of that even updated on a daily basis, and even technical data related with his/her health…

See: http://flowingdata.com/category/self-surveillance/ and
http://flowingdata.com/2008/09/12/23-personal-tools-to-learn-more-about-yourself/

Visualization of Information on Environments: States and companies have big-scale information on and there is growing pressure for such data to be made public. Manuel Lima comments on the importance of the visualization of information on environment-related data: http://www.visualcomplexity.com/vc/blog/?p=450

Visualization of Information on Relationships Between Individuals and Environment: The fundamental challenge of this workshop is to find ideas for projects of visualisation of the relationship between the individual and the environment, and reflect on how to find data of this kind. Probably possibilities may arise as a result of mixing projects focussed exclusively to the individual or to the environment.

Representing the relationship between people and what surrounds us is of considerable political importance because it informs us on how the environment affects the individual, and contributes to identifying strategies for these alterations to become positive.

Bestiario coordinates a series of open conferences. It is a small Barcelona/Lisbon-based company founded three years ago. They are dedicated to data dynamic representation and to the creation of spaces for the collective creation of knowledge. Their slogan is: ‘making the complex comprehensible.’ They combine art and science to design and create interactive information spaces. They have developed a powerful framework based on graph theory, topological algorithms, physical models, and geometrical and geographical representations.

Some of their clients: DDB Spain, Fundación Telefónica, MEIAC, Telefónica I+D, Terra, Yahoo Research, Residencia de Estudiantes, MACBA, FERROVIAL, Berkman 10 (Harvard University), Museo Eletricidade, IACC, Diputación de Barcelona, Madrid en Red, La Caixa, IASP, Havas Media, Ministerio de Educacion, UOC.

Santiago Ortiz. Mathematician, researcher and creator of knowledge digital interfaces. His work explores the possibilities of creation and collective narration in internet. He is co-founder of Bestiario, where he leads a transdisciplinar team about social networks, complex information and interactivity and data visualization.

Miguel Cardoso. Sound and visual artist researching in the fields of data visualization, design, programming and experimental music. Graduated on Communication Design and studying for a phD on Computer music, he has been on Bestiario, creating interactive media projects with deep focus on data complexity, and frequently performing as a laptop improv musician.

Tiago Henriques studied computer science and film production, and is currently working at Bestiario as developer and researches in the fields of data visualization, open source, programming, diy approaches, and 3d printing. As a film producer he runs a small production company called Lucinda Filmes. He is also a founding member of Altlab, Lisbon’s hackerspace. On his rare spare times he enjoys speleology, mountaineering and climbing.

Open conferences:
12th August, 19:00h. Angela Zoss. http://ivl.slis.indiana.edu/
17th August, 19:00h. Marcos Weskamp. http://www.marumushi.com
19th August, 19:00h. Fabian Girarden. http://www.girardin.org/fabien/
22th August, 12:00h. Manuel Lima. http:// www.visualcomplexity.com
19:00h Opening of the exhibition

Angela Zoss
Researcher oh the Information Visualization Laboratory, University of Indiana. http://ivl.slis.indiana.edu/

Marcos Weskamp
Marcos Weskamp is a Design Engineer who has a deep interest in playing with and visualizing lots of data.

Fabian Girarden
Researcher of the Computer Science and Digital Communication in the Interactive Technologies Group (Department of Information and Communication Technologies) at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, and associated to the Senseable City Lab del Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Manuel Lima
Designer and editor of Visualcomplexity.