SAIC/NU Data Viz Collaborative

August 16–22
Reception: Friday, August 16, 4:00–6:00 p.m.
Gallery X, 280 S. Columbus Dr., room 113

Twenty-one students and nine faculty members from Northwestern University and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) are combining big data with collaborative research, studio arts, and visual communication design this summer at SAIC’s downtown campus. The results—creative approaches to information visualization developed in an intensive new course, called Data Viz Collaborative—will go on view at SAIC’s Gallery X from August 16 through 22 with related installations in the lobby of the LeRoy Neiman Center from August 16 through September 13.

The free exhibition will showcase the latest developments at SAIC in a long history of connecting artistic and scientific practices via their shared processes of discovery. Divided into three research groups, each set of participants was given six weeks and a $500 budget to develop the experimental projects that will be on display. The areas of concentration are Big Data and School Choice in Chicagoland, Mapping Genealogy and Ancestry, and Eye-tracking: tracing the gaze in an image.

“In today’s increasingly data-driven world, artists and designers have much to contribute to innovation alongside scientists and engineers,” says SAIC President Walter E. Massey. “The complexity and scale of the issues presented by visualizing information in the age of big data require a creativity of approach and mindset in both research and problem-solving. Only by combining the interpretive powers of artists and scientists can we continue to achieve the kinds of breakthroughs necessary to sustain an innovative society and economy.”

http://www.saic.edu/academics/areasofstudy/artandscience/datavizcollaborative/