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Information visualization: a new visual language (part 8) Conclusion

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Fin
In the interests of sparking commentary and kickstarting my nascent "design as cultural imperialism" thought process (and future unbook—because thoughts on social and cultural perception and construction are never complete), I'm excerpting portions of my Media Psychology and Social Change Master's capstone project on this blog. And yes, dear readers, together we have reached the series' conclusion. If you've arrived here by direct link, you can find the other posts here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7. As always, read, comment, tweet, retweet, argue, assert, agree: I'm game. And thanks for reading!

Conclusion
The next wave of media communication has arrived in the form of information visualization. Information visualizations are powerful ideological dissemination tools. By design they incorporate visual perception, contextualize data in parsimonious ways, inform cognitive and perceptual fluency, actuate cultural semiotics, and present data in explicit mental shorthand. In the new language of information visualization art and science coalesce to engender new understandings, and, if done really well, tell interesting stories. 

During the last seven posts, we've covered the complexities, rewards, and inherent dangers of data visualization. If, as we begin to explore this emerging language, we can simultaneously create and parse the visual neologisms that will arise, we will begin to alter what it means to talk about data, as well as what it means to present data. We may even alter our world in such a way that we will need to create verbal language to discuss this visual language.

The task that lies ahead offers huge opportunities, and as long as we can educate ourselves as to information visualization's potentials regarding perception, persuasion, and interpretation, we can use it without fear of its pitfalls. However, we will need to continually negotiate our way through the propagandistic fields of data, statistics, and graphic representation. The reward will be enrichment of not only human cognition but of human potential. For a new language provides new opportunities to think new thoughts, perceive new worlds, divine new connections, and exceed current mental boundaries.

Information visualizations comprise an intrinsically alluring area of study deserving far greater scientific attention and research from the psychological world than they currently enjoy. Fortunately, despite the current paucity of research, there does appear to be a surge in university programs focusing on the combination of media, communication, theory, design and programming.

In the coming years, the field of information visualization will prove to be a broad and intriguing field. And while psychological research into all aspects of data visualization seems inevitable, I hope these posts will further galvanize interest in studying it sooner rather than later.

 

 

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