Visualization

1. Andrew FrankCMNS 801 Visualization

2. 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

3. Ptolemy's World Map

4. Visualization Today

5. Artifacts of the Presence EraMIT Media Lab An Image Revolution. A world of cross-mediation.

6. Martin Irvine Communication, Culture, and Technology Program Georgetown University Related Studies

7. 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).

8. Merging Fields

9. “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....” Why Visual Science Communication Matters

10. “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.” Why Visual Science Communication Matters

11. Collaborative for Advanced Landscape PlanningLocal Climate Change Visioning Project Representing Climate Change Futures

12. Representing Climate Change Futures

13. 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.

14. 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?

15. “People’s 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).” Ethical & Methodological Issues

16. “A person’s 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.” Ethical & Methodological Issues

17. 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).

18. 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.

19. 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.

20. Climate Change Futures Summary • Looking for: • (a) The perceived importance of climate change to participants (its salience). • (b) Participants’ feelings of how and whether they can personally do anything about • 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).

21. Climate Change Futures Summary • 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 • difficulty in imagining the future, all participants had rich opinions to offer. • - Media • - Personal experience • - Imagination

22. Climate Change Futures Summary • Found: Where climate change was apparently not a personally • 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. • Where climate change was apparently more salient, visualizations ranged between being scientific to being more national, local and personal.

23. Follow-up Study • 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 • 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.

24. The Antelope Brush Grasslands Case Study

25. Case Study Pocket Desert Alliance group takes on Aquila By Leslie Plaskett Editor’s note: due to space limitations Aquila’s 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 company’s 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.

26. 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 didn’t present the alternatives to a substation – and there are alternatives. It’s 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.

27. 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.

28. 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 Aquila’s 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.” Case Study

29. 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 11:00 a.m. or 1:00 p.m. “The RDOS can turn down Aquila’s 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. We’ve 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 everyone’s responsibility and if people don’t start to monitor their use of this resource, “we will face this (situation) over and over again.”

30. 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?