Arya, Agustin A. "The Hidden Side of Visualization."
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Arya, Agustin A. The Hidden Side of Visualization. Techn??: Research in Philosophy and Technology. Winter 2003
What is a Visualization? How do we know we're looking at one? What happens when we do? What goes into making one?
In his article, Arya goes to great length to describe not onlywhat a visualization is, but a number of factors that go into andcome out of a visualization. The real meat of the article seems tocenter around proving to the reader that a visualization is reallyonly as good as the sum of its parts. The user of a anyvisualization is provided with an opportunity to be showninformation in a new and different way and, with any luck and ifdone correctly, the visualization, Arya argues, has the potentialto literally change the way the user thinks.
An interesting section of the article is where Arya develops theidea of the user, or even the creator, of a visualizationexperiencing what he describes as a Galilean Moment. This moment, in layman's terms, is the moment when a personcan make sense of the environment in such a way that geometricshapes can be used as models or visual aids for explanationand understanding. This is where a visualization becomes powerful.Expanding further on this topic, Arya suggests that a more advancedCartesian Moment can also occur, where the user not onlyrealizes the potential of geometric shapes as representations ofthe environment, but also that these can be measured, and thereforeprovide even further opportunity for understanding of theinformation they represent.
Arya also makes note of the moment in which a visualizationbecomes useful to the user, like a tool, relating it toHeideggerian philosophy. Heideggerian philosophy talks about a toolbeing "present at hand" vs being "ready athand." A tool is considered present-at-hand when it is notobvious what it can be used for, by the user. A tool beingready-at-hand, conversely, is a tool where it is not only obviousto the user what it is used for, but it actually becomes anextension of the user. The tool exists as a thing, and thething things when it is ready-at-hand. This is the ideal,Arya argues, of any visualization: to be ready-at-hand for the userin such a way that the user is not held back by the visualization,but is cognitively extended by it, so that their thinking can beenhanced, or even changed by the information it represents.
The article requires a certain amount of concentration to read,as it is packed with information about visualization. Given theopportunity, however, the article also has the potential to changethe way the reader views visualizations in general.
