Interactive Visualization

In the introduction to Interactive Visualizaton, Bill Ferster defines the term “information visualization” and provides a history of its uses, going all the way back to Leonardo DaVinci’s illustration of Vitruvian man and illustrations of London’s cholera epidemic in the nineteenth century. He states the current definition of information visualization as “the use of computer-supported, interactive, visual representations of abstract data to amplify cognition” (4).

In providing a history of information visualization, Ferster further explains how the evolution of personal computing has taken information visualization to new heights, allowing for its uses especially in the academy and in journalism. He also further defines interactive visualization as “a subset of information visualization” that “share[s] most of its features. Specifically, they add the ability for the end user to interact dynamically with the visualization in a reflexive manner” 8).

Ferster also breaks down three categories of visualization models, defining them as theoretical, descriptive, and prescriptive. The chapter then delves into different theories about visualization that are applicable to each category and defines the ASSERT model, designed to “support the creation of visualizations that are accessible, insightful, educational, compelling, and that build on the traditions of historical and social science research” (39-40).

In terms of my own project, I found reading Ferster’s definitions to be helpful in clarifying the type of visualization that I am interested in creating and in helping me think through the interactive and visual features it would contain.

My current plan is to use VisualEyes (although perhaps there’s a better tool for my project; I have been mentally configuring it in VisualEyes up to this point) to tell the story of and catalogue information about several women novelists/other literary figures who all attended Somerville College at Oxford University in the early twentieth century. Founded in 1879, Somerville was one of the first Oxford colleges to admit women, although women could not actually earn a degree from Oxford until 1920. But many novelists and other women influential in the literary scene went to Somerville within a few years of each other, but have received little scholarly attention and many of the works are out-of-print.

At this point, my research question(s) is: what is the impact of this one specific location for intellectual activity (Somerville College) on this group of writers, and what were their stories/sphere of influence once they left? (for instance, one Somerville attendee in 1904, Margaret Haig Thomas, went on to establish a feminist publication that lasted from the 1920s-50s. Vera Brittain attended Somerville several years later—and her education was interrupted by three years spent nursing soldiers in France during WWI, but returned to Somerville to finish her education and became well-known through her memoir Testament of Youth).

As for evidence, some basic biographical info on these women exists on Wikipedia. Some of their works are also available for free through Project Gutenberg or the HathiTrust. My main source of data at the moment is a monograph, Dangerous by Degrees: Women at Oxford and the Somerville College Novelists by Susan J. Leonardi, published in 1989 (although I’m not necessarily interested in limiting my project to these six novelists—Leonardi studied these six for specific reasons and only looks at 8 years of history at Somerville). There is also some scholarship available on the feminist publication Time and Tide established by Margaret Haig Thomas.

Since this is something has already been written about (although limited), perhaps I should rephrase my research question to be: is there a way to visually tell the story of this web of individuals? By using Visual Eyes, I was thinking the drop-down could allow for selecting a different author, which would show the viewer a basic timeline of that person’s life, a mapping of the places they lived/went after Oxford (so Oxford being the “hub” of the wheel, building a network outward), and some way to convey their best-known work(s) (I would also love to include a way for viewers to see what is still in print and where you can get their works i.e. links to Project Gutenberg, etc).

Question for Bill Ferster: How can you (or can you?) approach a project where the visual element may not be as compelling, but the interactivity is your primary goal? Is there still a way to tell a story through the accumulation of information in one location, even if it’s not “super” visually compelling?

Work Cited: Ferster, Bill. Interactive Visualization: Insight Through Inquiry. MIT Press, 2013.