Critical Visualization for Humanities Research: Designing for People, Context and Politics

Mar 04, 2020
  • 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM
  • Location:
    PWIAS Seminar Room
    6331 Crescent Road
    Vancouver, BC

Visualization is a powerful tool for communicating and gaining insight into complex subjects. Maps, graphs, and diagrams can help us see patterns and connections that might otherwise remain hidden in data. Once uncovered, the visual means of presenting these insights can easily seem neutral and objective. And yet, every visualization promotes a certain perspective of the world, often concealing its own assumptions, gaps, and biases. The choices made in creating a visualization, who or what is represented, and the context in which it is perceived — all influence what we see and do not see. The emerging field of data feminism navigates between these two poles, both acknowledging the power of visualization techniques and also urging critical attention to the forms of power that these techniques implicitly support. 

This half-day workshop will broadly explore visualization as a tool of humanistic inquiry and specifically focusing on data feminism as a productive lens for using and critiquing visualization techniques. The format will be a mix of expert speakers and hands-on project work. We invite applications from graduate students, post-docs, and faculty members who would like to develop critical approaches to visualization in their own projects.

To apply to attend, please email tzepel@chem.ubc.ca by February 21st with your name, affiliation, a brief description of your current project, and your motivation for attending. Open to graduate students, faculty and staff at UBC, Emily Carr, and SFU.

Speakers: Catherine D’Ignazio (MIT Media Lab), Ben Shneiderman (Univ of Maryland & UBC Peter Wall Institute), Charles Berret (UBC Journalism), Tara Zepel (UBC Chemistry), Sheelagh Carpendale (SFU), and more.

Viz@UBC is an initiative to bring together and promote the community at UBC of people interested in visualization, co-sponsored by the Designing for People cluster and the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies.

Presenters