Autographic Design – the Matter of Data in a Self-Inscribing World

by admin | Oct 1, 2023

Autographic Design – the Matter of Data in a Self-Inscribing World

Book companion website autographic.design

An ambitious vision for design based on the premise that data is material, not abstract.

New Monograph published at MIT Press

Data analysis and visualization are crucial tools in today’s society, and digital representations have steadily become the default. Yet, more and more often, we find that citizen scientists, environmental activists, and forensic amateurs are using analog methods to present evidence of pollution, climate change, and the spread of disinformation. In this illuminating book, Dietmar Offenhuber presents a model for these practices, a model to make data generation accountable: autographic design.

Autographic refers to the notion that every event inscribes itself in countless ways. Think of a sundial, for example—a perfectly autographic device that displays information on itself. Inspired by such post-digital practices of visualization and evidence construction, Offenhuber describes an approach to visualization based on the premise that data is a material entity rather than an abstract representation. Emerson wrote, “Every act of the man inscribes itself in the memories of his fellows, and in his own manners and face.” In Autographic Design, Offenhuber introduces a model for design that emphasizes traces, imprints, and self-inscriptions, turning them into sensory displays.

In an age where misinformation is harder and harder to identify, Autographic Design makes an urgent and persuasive case for a different approach that calls attention to the production of data and its connection to the material world. (MIT Press)

Praise

“A suggestive addition to the literature on data and materiality, Offenhuber’s work on the ‘self-inscribing autographic trace’ should quickly become a standard reference in the fields of computational analysis and design.”

Johanna Drucker, Professor of Information Studies, UCLA; author of Inventing the Alphabet

“Offenhuber shows how autographic design operations and techniques can offer a refreshing new way to trace data culture without forgetting software. This is one of the most important recent books in design and critical data studies.”

Jussi Parikka, Professor of Digital Aesthetics and Culture, Aarhus University; author of Operational Images

https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262547024/autographic-design/
https://www.amazon.com/Autographic-Design-Self-Inscribing-metaLAB-Projects/dp/0262547023/

New Elements – Analog Computing and the Environment

by admin | May 16, 2022

New Elements – Analog Computing and the Environment

with Laboratoria Arts & Science Foundation
New Tretyakov Gallery Moscow
Curated by Daria Parkhomenko & Dietmar Offenhuber
In partnership with Kaspersky

The exhibition NEW ELEMENTS explores an unusual perspective on data and computation, centering on the physicality of information and its implications for how we make sense of the world. 12 works by artists from different countries show how to close the gap between data and the world.

Artists: Memo Akten (Turkey – UK), Ralf Baecker (Germany), Erich Berger (Finland), Ilya Fedotov-Fedorov (Russia), Thomas Feuerstein (Austria), Forensic Architecture (UK), Ryoichi Kurokawa (Japan), Tuula Narhinen (Finland), Anna Ridler (UK), Tomas Saraceno (Argentina), Theresa Schubert (Germany), Aki Inomata (Japan)

Curatorial text
website

What we talk about when we talk about data physicality

by admin | Sep 19, 2020

What we talk about when we talk about data physicality

Best Paper Award IEEE CG&A

For the IEEE Computer Graphics & Applications journal special issue on data physicalization, I wrote a paper on data materiality, especially focused on which concepts of data are mobilized in the data physicalization discourse and practice.

Data physicalizations “map data to physical form,” yet many canonical examples are not based on data sets. To address this contradiction, I argue that the practice of physicalization forces us to rethink traditional notions of data. This paper proposes a conceptual framework to examine how physicalizations relate to data. This paper develops a two-dimensional conceptual space for comparing different perspectives on data used in physicalization, drawing from design theory and critical data studies literature. One axis distinguishes between epistemological and ontological perspectives, focusing on the relationship between data and the mind. The second axis distinguishes how data relate to the world, differentiating between representational and relational perspectives. To clarify the aesthetic and conceptual implications of these different perspectives, the paper discusses examples of data physicalization for each quadrant of the continuous space. It further uses the framework to examine the explicit and implicit assumptions about data in physicalization literature. As a theoretical paper, it encourages practitioners to think about how data relate to the manifestations and the phenomena they try to capture. It invites exploration of the relationship between data and the world as a generative source of creative tension.

The paper can currently be accessed as a pre-print on the arxiv server

Autographic Visualization (IEEE VIS Paper)

by admin | Oct 30, 2019

Autographic Visualization (IEEE VIS Paper)

Data by Proxy — Material Traces as Autographic Visualizations

Per definition, data visualization can only begin when data exists. As a result, the process of data collection remains mostly hidden. Visualization methods are designed to reveal patterns in data; however, many public controversies are not about what is “in” the data, but about the circumstances of data collection.

Autographic visualization is a speculative counter-model to data visualization based on the premise that data are something material rather than something abstract and symbolic. The design operations of autographic visualization aim to set the conditions that allow material phenomena to reveal themselves — as physical traces or environmental indicators. The design of autographic or self-registering devices has a long history that is closely connected to the history of data visualization. Today, autographic visualization can be used to make the process of data collection more legible and accountable. The comparison between the two models allows probing the epistemic assumptions behind information visualization and uncovers linkages with the rich history of scientific visualization and trace reading.

link to IEEE VIS paper
VISAP pictorial

Ozone Tattoo

by admin | May 17, 2019

Ozone Tattoo

Partners: Dr. Vehram Elagoz, Lesley University, Dr. Kent Burkey, USDA ARS Maryland

Among other issues, climate change leads to an increase in ground-level ozone, a pollutant with harmful impacts on plants, animals, and humans. Ozone tattoo is an autographic visualization project that uses ozone-sensitive plants as bio-indicators to visualize ozone pollution. Ozone tattoos are damage patterns on the surface of the leaves created by localized exposure to ozone. These damage patterns allow decoding the impact of the pollutant through visual comparison with the healthy portions of the leaf.

The project is based on the established citizen science approach of planting ozone gardens, which allow communities to monitor pollution by observing plants that are sensitive to ozone. One of the indicator plants used in the project, the tobacco plant, has historical significance for Massachusetts and its history of industrialization. Until the early 1920s, western Massachusetts was a center of tobacco production, the source of high-quality cigar wrappers. One factor that ended this thriving industry was the adverse effect of ground-level ozone resulting from industrialization. Tobacco plants are highly sensitive to ozone and show visible damage already at low concentrations. This sensitivity makes the plants an excellent bio-indicator that is often used in ozone garden projects.

Exhibition at the Cambridge Council of the Arts