Patterns of Thought and Image
Saturday, September 29, 2012
8:30-10:30 AM, WCC 230
Increasing Visual Literacy through Data Visualization
Justin Lincoln, Assistant Professor of Studio Art/New Genres, Whitman College
Lynne Vieth, Instructional and Research Librarian, Whitman College
Justin Lincoln's Tumblr for the talk
In the Fall of 2012, Justin Lincoln and Lynne Vieth, funded by a Whitman College Innovation in Teaching and Learning grant, began a cross-curricular project titled “Increasing Visual Literacy through Data Visualization.” Lincoln and Vieth believe that identifying the analytical, artistic, and rhetorical skills required to create successful data visualizations has the pedagogical potential to take the teaching and learning of critical thinking and viewing to another level. It is their hope that data visualization might empower students to create their own customized filters that enable the comprehension of complex data.
Can guidelines and best practices emerge from studying these customized creations and identifying the skills conducive to producing them? A central goal of the project is to explore the usefulness of applying the Visual Literacy Competency Standards recently published by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). We have every reason to believe that the performance indicators and learning outcomes in the Standards will help us to articulate certain benchmarks of student achievement.
Justin Lincoln attended California Institute of the Arts (MFA in Fine Arts), Virginia Commonwealth University (BFA in Sculpture), and Longwood College (BA in English Literature.) Recently he has shown work in Boston, Minneapolis, the North by Northwestern Festival in Wigan England, and Experimental Intermedia in New York City. He has shown for four consecutive years at the prestigious Dallas VideoFest. Degrees: Longwood College B.A.; Virginia Commonwealth University, B.F.A.; California Institute of the Arts, M.F.A.
Lynne Vieth's most recent professional activities include participating in a panel session, “(R)evolution in Source Literacy at Whitman College,” and presenting a paper, “Borges Envisions the Library’s Future,” at the 2011 Convention of the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL). Degrees: Whitman College, B.A.; San José State, M.L.I.S.; University of California, Berkeley, Ph.D. in Comparative Literature.
The Ethno-Geometry of Cultural Patterns
Darrah Chavey, Associate Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science, Beloit College
Many historical cultures have taken advantage of a variety of symmetric structures. Certain cultures use very precise, regular variations in “geometric symmetry” to widen the possible geometric designs that they create. Inca and Papua New Guinea artists embed one design within another so that the full assortment of symmetries can only be seen by decomposing the overall piece into component elements. Ancient Egyptian artists avoid “glide-reflections,” while many other cultures embrace them. The Afghani Pashtun use multiple colors in different quantities to get multiple types of color-interchanging symmetries. And so on. Many such variations of the basic geometrical symmetries arise in ethnographic art, and these variations often distinguish one culture’s art from another: A particular variation may be quite common in one place, and quite rare almost everywhere else. Being able to see the symmetries, precise violations of symmetry, and “hidden” symmetries in such art enables us to do a close reading of such designs. In several cases, understanding this type of close reading gives us insight into the artistic values of these cultures, and can give us insight into other cultural values as well.
Darrah Chavey received his Ph.D. in 1984 with a thesis analyzing certain types of geometric designs in the plane. He has taught a course in Ethnomathematics at Beloit for 20 years, has published 8 papers and one poster in the area, and has presented 23 invited talks on the aspects of the subject at various forums. He will appear as an Ethnomathematics professor in an upcoming science fiction novel by a World Fantasy Award winning novelist. Darrah Chavey's Home Page. Degrees: University of Wisconsin, Madison, M.S., Ph.D.
Moderator:
Kristin Partlo
Reference & Instruction Librarian for Social Sciences & Data
