Visualization

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Visualization

• Andrew FrankCMNS 801

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Agenda

• Introduction to visualization
• Why visual science communication matters
• Representing Climate Change futures
• Ethical considerations methods in the
  literature
• Actual visualization study
• Antelope Brush Grasslands case study questions

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Ptolemy's World Map
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Visualization Today
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An Image Revolution. A world of cross-mediation.

• Artifacts of the Presence EraMIT Media Lab

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Related Studies

• Martin Irvine
• Communication, Culture, and Technology Program
• Georgetown University

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Related Studies
- The "visual culture" approach acknowledges the
reality of living in a world of
cross-mediation--our experience of culturally
meaningful visual content appears in multiple
forms, and visual content and codes migrate from
one form to another - print images
and graphic design - TV and cable TV
- film and video - computer
interfaces and software design -
Internet/Web as a visual platform -
digital media - advertising in all
media (a true cross-media institution)?
- fine art and photography - fashion
- architecture, design, and urban
design - We learn the codes for each form and
code switch among the media and the "high" and
"low" culture forms. - The experience of
everyday life can be described as code-switching
or hacking the visual codes around us to navigate
and negotiate meaning (see William Gibson,
Pattern Recognition).
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Merging Fields
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Why Visual Science Communication Matters

• The visual representation of science functions
  within three sometimes overlapping domains the
  scientist, the science communicator, and the
  public. Members of each of these domains are
  potential producers and potential consumers of
  science images. However, the differences om
  scientific and visual literacy among scientists,
  science communicators and the public may be
  stark....

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Why Visual Science Communication Matters

• One of the science communicator's roles is to
  clarify both the words and the images produced by
  the scientist to make the message more readily
  understood by a non expert audience. This process
  is not simple, neutral, or necessarily intuitive.
  Images are powerful elements, and visual
  representation in its many forms is a necessary
  part of science communication. What are the
  decisions made by the science communicator? How
  are visual representations edited'? While these
  may seem like obvious or simple questions, the
  fact is that simple decisions often have profound
  consequences.

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Representing Climate Change Futures

• Collaborative for Advanced Landscape
  PlanningLocal Climate Change Visioning Project

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Representing Climate Change Futures
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Attempts at Objectivity

• Goal of visualization studies is to better
  understand how audiences perceive, interpret and
  act on various aspects or variables of
  visualization.
• Objective study is especially difficult in
  visualization studies. Difficult to escape menu
  of options effect.

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Ethical Methodological Issues

• Issues of differential interpretation
• Subjectivity in the selection of images
• Prior assumptions in the creation of images
• Validity Parts Whole tension between
  reductionist and holistic approaches.
• Fun or function Are visualizations too
  absorbing? Too entertaining?

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Ethical Methodological Issues

• Peoples prior perceptions, experiences,
  attitudes, social background, cultural
  orientation and behavioural dispositions
  influence the reactions they will have to images
  of climate change, the messages they take away
  and whether they act on the basis of the visual
  communication they have received (e.g. Myers,
  1994).

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Ethical Methodological Issues

• A persons response to an image is not simply
  rational, but has an emotional component that
  raises ethical and practical issues (Myers,
  1994)...It needs to be managed carefully because
  responses to emotional visual appeals can simply
  end up triggering defensive psychological
  responses, leaving the audience desensitized with
  a sense of issue fatigue or leading to feelings
  of powerlessness to do anything to reduce the
  causes of climate change.

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Solutions Summary

• Need to be mindful of subjectivity, especially
  expert judgment in selection and creation of
  visualizations.
• Need to consider context and nature of target
  audience, including their local needs,
  expectations and visual context/understanding.
• Ensure application of LV applications doesn't
  prioritize technical expertise above the values,
  orientations and preferences that make landscape
  appreciation so conditional (role and judgement
  of the expert is controversial).

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Solutions Summary

• Ultimately the literature points to the need to
  acknowledge bias, and value-laden nature of
  visualization.
• Process needs to be transparent and intentions
  clear.
• Go local and bottom-up whenever possible.
• The future is increasingly one of hands-on public
  participation with visualization tools being made
  accessible on line and to all groups.
• We need to re-examine the design process of
  visualization technologies and positionality of
  design.

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Climate Change Futures Summary

• A bottom-up approach, manifesting understanding
  based on visual pre-conceptions already existing.
  
• Purposive sampling strategy and 30
  semi-structured interviews with open questions.
• Three unique groups with varying future
  orientations, representing varying
  socio-demographics and lifestyle characteristics.

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Climate Change Futures Summary

1. Looking for
2. (a) The perceived importance of climate change to
   participants (its salience).
3. (b) Participants feelings of how and whether
   they can personally do anything about
4. it (how or whether they perceive themselves as
   part of the cause and their sense of
   self-efficacy to take action and make a
   difference).

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Climate Change Futures Summary

1. Found Participants generally found it
   difficult to imagine the future, particularly in
   the context of climate change in 50 years time.
   Regardless of their level of knowledge or
2. difficulty in imagining the future, all
   participants had rich opinions to offer.
3. - Media
4. - Personal experience
5. - Imagination

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Climate Change Futures Summary

1. Found Where climate change was apparently not
   a personally
2. salient issue to participants, they were more
   likely to describe abstract, wild and
   catastrophic imagery, based on timescales beyond
   the life of the current generation.
3. Where climate change was apparently more salient,
   visualizations ranged between being scientific to
   being more national, local and personal.

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Follow-up Study

1. A follow-up study will be based on an image
   sorting exercise and then a series of focus
   groups, which will give participants the
   opportunity to discuss, criticize and respond to
   a range of images provided for them in terms of
   their senses of climate change salience and
   personal self-efficacy. These will span a variety
   of formats and will be selected on the basis of
   criteria constructed on the
2. basis of the interview data and consultation with
   an expert panel. The ultimate outcome is
   intended to offer guidelines and contribute to
   research in the field of climate change
   visualisation, and communicating to the public
   about climate change.

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Case Study

• The Antelope Brush Grasslands

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Case Study
Pocket Desert Alliance group takes on Aquila By
Leslie Plaskett Editors note due to space
limitations Aquilas response to the questions
raised by this article will be published next
week. At a public meeting held last Thursday
evening the Pocket Desert Preservation Alliance
(PDPA) brought a packed house up to speed on
their view of the Aquila substation project
slated for construction on the power companys
privately owned land, north of Gallagher Lake, in
the winter of 2003/04.In a maneuver reminiscent
of David and Goliath, the PDPA, a small newly
formed group of biologists and environmentalists,
is taking on the corporate giant and taking it to
task for centering the South Okanagan Supply
Reinforcement Project on endangered antelope
brush habitat.Andrew Frank, Kevin Dunn and
Janelle Parchomchuk headed up the session that
was held in the community centre on June 26, with
Frank acting as spokesperson throughout the
evening.Stating from the outset that their
purpose was to inform the public about the risks
the project poses to the habitat and its resident
species, they outlined what they felt to be a
more viable alternative, and underscored their
mandate to raise awareness about this option.




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Case Study



And one of their initial criticisms
of the company, Frank said, was that Aquila,
during its public information sessions, did not
focus on issues that were important to people and
it didnt present the alternatives to a
substation and there are alternatives. Its
only fair that since its going to be affecting
our community we be aware of the alternatives
that were passed over before this thing gets put
in. To set the environmental stage for their
rationale, PDPA member and biologist, Janelle
Parchomchuk, described the habitat (antelope
brush shrub steppe) that will be affected by the
substation as one that has been chipped away at
over time and is now provincially and federally
endangered. The valley bottom, favoured by
wildlife and plants, is also favoured by people
and has experienced considerable losses over the
last 100 years. The narrow valley is unique in
all of Canada, she explained and particularly
where it bottlenecks at Vaseaux Lake it is an
important migration corridor for sheep and birds
that funnel through. The cliffs are important for
species of bats, some of which are found only
here in Canada. The area also has other
features, Socio-economically speaking this
beauty attracts people here. They come for its
natural attributes and it adds to the quality of
life for local citizens. And she warns that it
has been a focus for conservation for
years. It is within this area, considered by
many to be a national treasure, that the
substation will be built. And this explains why
there is heightened sensitivity regarding the
habitat that will be lost during construction.
Frank says this will amount to 10 acres of
antelope brush being bulldozed to the ground, a
figure he says represents one per cent of the
total remaining ecosystem. And when it is rare
and endangered, one per cent is perceived as too
high a loss.
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Case Study



It is a source of frustration for the
PDPA who believe the additional power required
for the area could be provided by the Warfield
to Penticton line instead. Frank says Aquila has
chosen the substation because it is the easiest
and least expensive option for the company. He
says that the other alternative, the Warfield to
Penticton line, which would run parallel to
existing BC Hydro lines, cuts through habitat
that is not endangered and is already being
logged. Frank points out that a 1999 screening
test that compares the viability of the two
options was withheld from their group, Aquila
put a hold on this they were not open to
disclosure. Another thorn in their side
regarding the substation goes beyond the ground
it will raze to the sound that is part and parcel
of the project. A substation taps into existing
500 KV lines, converts it into 250 then sends it
back up to their lines. Transformers do this and
they operate 24 hours a day seven days a
week. And it is the noise, 80 decibels, which
concerns the group. This is the equivalent to
the highway noise of the 401 in Toronto or
freeway in Vancouver. Explaining the effects of
bioacoustics he says that sound radiates out and
that decibels grow exponentially, as well there
is reverberation off the cliffs. The bottom line
is that sound levels affect animals adversely.
Sheep and elk can be driven out of an area by
loud random noises. He proposes that this can
affect the rutting and lambing of the California
Bighorn Sheep that rely on the habitat in this
area.
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Case Study



Besides the affects on the sheep
there are problems for the adjacent landowners,
In order to tap into the lines the poles will be
100 feet high and that is not aesthetically
pleasing. Property values will decrease. He
also says that the 25 acre fenced compound can be
seen from the highway and cuts the corridor for
the sheep right in half. The group also
challenges Aquilas methodology in determining
sound levels. There were many inadequacies.
Reflection and reverberation were not addressed
and the report on noise was not conducted by a
credible source it was not done by a member of
the Canadian Acoustical Society. As well the
PDPA notes that nothing was compiled on
individual species such as bats, raptors, snakes
or butterflies. Noise is a big deal. The 25 acre
footprint may not include peripheral noise,
Kevin Dunn explains, This needs to be revisited
by professionals. Another concern of the PDPA
was the fact that test pits were dug before the
environmental assessment was complete and this
in effect renders the environmental impact
statement null and void. The group also
mentioned that the area is bulldozed right to
the creek bed without a 30 meter buffer
zone. Dallas Plensky, who is studying the
California Bighorn Sheep as part of her Master of
Science degree, provided a synopsis of the sheep
population and their progress since the pneumonia
die off a few years ago. habitat quality is
essential to their survival, she says noting
that there are only 200 animals counted from
Penticton Creek to the border. Loss of habitat
is not in line with their recovery. They are not
a big healthy herd.
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Case Study



While there are many issues in
question here, the PDPA is focusing now on a
meeting at the Regional District of the Okanagan
Similkameen (RDOS) that takes place at their
office on July 3 at either 1100 a.m. or 100
p.m. The RDOS can turn down Aquilas application
for a variance permit and this will hold up the
process for six months, Frank says. The permit
is about the height of the towers, they are
applying for a change from 15 to 36
meters. Frank is concerned that if the
application goes through the permit will be seen
as a green light. Dan Ashton, chair of the RDOS,
and Joe Cardoso, Area C Director, were both in
attendance and while Ashton said that only
adjacent property owners could attend the meeting
he welcomed submissions from the public, There
are two sides to every story, he said, but we
are here. Weve come down to hear this. Along
with many others who shared her sentiment, Celia
Newman commented after questioning why the
general public could not attend, This is a huge
concern for tourism, for ecotourism, naturalists
and birders. It would be a gross travesty to lose
any part of it. Eva Durance who leads many
Meadowlark Festival tours in the area voiced her
chagrin over the towers, saying they would be a
detriment to naturalists or anyone taking in the
view. But she also concluded at the end of the
meeting that conservation of power is everyones
responsibility and if people dont start to
monitor their use of this resource, we will face
this (situation) over and over again.
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Questions

• Thoughts about improving objectivity?
• Thoughts about relationship between science
  visualization (making science material) and
  actual practice of science?
• Thoughts about resolving role of the expert in
  research more generally?