project documentation - Ctrl-N

olivier ruellet - BA(hons) Visual Communication option Time-Based Media
internet exposer
[interactive & collaborative environment generated by live input from the World-Wide-Web]
project documentation
contents:
1 Introduction / aims
2 Learning outcomes
3 Background research
4 Proposals for web mapping and visualisation
5 Additional research
6 Final piece: collaborative map
7 Conclusion
References
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1 Introduction / Aims:
This project aims at building an online information space visualising semantic relations among
web data in the context of a net art installation. It is also a continuation of my previous project, the
Metrosoul movie which consisted of a visual interpretation of Cyberspace as an urban environment.
I chose the code name ‘exposer’ as an ironic reference to internet explorer since it stands for an
application able to expose an overview of data structures instead of meaningless portals packed with
adverts. Through this project, my point is to subvert the web as a mass-media and to propose
alternative ways to explore and communicate information carried by web pages. By highlighting the
browsing process, tackling innovative methods of organising, presenting and searching information in
a virtual space, I want to stimulate discoveries and encourage learning and knowledge exchange.
The Metrosoul movie : a visual interpretation of Cyberspace as a urban environment.
2 Learning outcomes:
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Information design and usability: methods for presentation and retrieval of large arrays of
data in an intuitive and efficient way. (part of the research led in my final essay).
Cognitive science: how we sort information and how such processes can be applied to
information design ; study of classification systems, knowledge cartography, brain-like
processing.
Computer science: look at programming solutions for database building, emergence and
artificial intelligence.
3 Background research
How to envision virtual space as a medium for storage and retrieval of information ?
Digital information visualisation:
Edward Tufte’s Visual display of quantitative information demonstrates the power of visual
presentation of information for speed and accuracy of knowledge acquisition. Using graphical
representations allows us to make instant comparisons between areas of data ; it’s at the heart of
visual reasoning – to see, distinguish, choose.
Visuals, compared to text-based displays, provide an easy and instantaneous reading, and in a
certain extent, universality. Well used, they can play a major role in the process of information
memorisation and acquisition.
information architecture
organising contents into a logical structure
‘Classification is at the beginning of all understanding’ : to understand a concept is to be able to
relate it to others, to include it among similar ones. Classifications help us in this task, however the
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way information is organised results in the creation of a mental model for the user, and the user’s
model is not necessarily the same as the designer’s model. Furthermore we need to ‘label’ each
category of classification, and labels, built upon the foundation of language, can be ambiguous and
perhaps subjective.
Another important point to consider is the existence of two different organisation schemes : On
one hand, exact schemes are well defined and mutually exclusive (alphabetical, chronological,
geographical...) On the other hand, ambiguous schemes allow categories to overlap and are
particularly convenient when it comes to sort very heterogeneous data such as Web-based data,
difficult to classify strictly. It can turn out to be a great advantage when we don’t always know what we
are looking for ; Information seeking is often iterative and interactive and it would be a shame of losing
this process often involving associative learning. When you learn while searching, it’s web surfing at its
best. Ambiguous schemes can be topical, task-oriented (shop layout) metaphor-driven (can help
understanding content and suggest new functionalities but may breakdown).
Examples of information spaces:
Thinkmap an example of Plumb Design's Thinkmap used to map out a visual thesaurus. Words
are linked with each other by synonyms, antonyms… Display is adaptable to the user’s settings.
kartoo.com a meta search engine that presents its results on a map. Common keywords are
represented by paths between web pages, websites are grouped together in semantic areas.
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map.net generates a 3D cityscape view of the Web, with individual websites represented by
smaller buildings, and the most popular and important sites by large skyscrapers.
map.net : cataloguing the Word-Wide-Web through virtual architecture.
Spatial arrangement can reveal the conceptual organisation of information and play an important
role in the cognition process, since the data structure creates a mental model for the user. Using
intuitive mapping concepts can help individuals to broaden their view into related subjects and gain a
deeper understanding of hidden relationships that were previously not known.
4 proposals for web mapping and visualisation:
In this part of my research I looked at various ways of visualising semantic relationships among
pieces of information. Challenges are to represent the data, to determine meaningful structures for the
layout, to suggest methods for interacting with the body of data.
spider diagrams
“A library is more than a collection of books. The way the books are ordered and placed
on the shelves reflects a way of thinking about the organization of their content. The
arrangement helps the library user to build a personal knowledge space, where thoughts can
be ordered in relation to the placement of the books.”
The virtual Library Builder, Bits and spaces.
The Dewey Decimal Classification is a system used in libraries to sort books by subsumed topics.
Such a conception could be visualised by spider diagrams to map out web data along this hierarchical
schema ; an hyperbolic space could be used to map relationships between remote areas and gain
better visibility of dense areas.
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Example of an hyperbolic space used to map semantic relationships along hierarchical diagrams,
typically in a Dewey Decimal Classification scheme. (source image : Tamara Munzner)
thematic paths
My debut second year project was about
establishing a personal multi-data map
investigating relationships among people,
places, occupations, journeys in my life. I took
for model a transport map where each lane
represented a theme and the stations relevant
items ; interchanges accounted for items
relevant to both topics.
I found out later on that the UK artist Simon
Patterson used a similar idea in the ‘Great Bear’
adapting the London Underground map by
replacing stations names with names of famous
cultural figures throughout history, through to the
end of the 20th century, sorted thematically.
It works as a map in that it enables the
viewer to locate ‘things’ in relationship to others,
except that in this case the relationship is not
with underground stations but with cultural icons.
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Simon Patterson’s Great Bear
multi-layered map
Inspired by "ET-Map", a multi-level category map of over 100,000 Web pages developed by the
Artificial Intelligence Lab at the University of Arizona, where the top level shows general topics, the
next level down lists subtopics, and so on. It could be a Self-Organized Map that organizes itself
miscellaneous collection of text documents into meaningful maps for exploration. Such a map consists
of a regular grid of ‘neurons’ or processing units placing alike documents close to each other and
dissimilar ones far apart. The labels on the map are an example of the core vocabulary within that
area.
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My interpretation of this multi-layered map
consists of using a topology of the space closely
modelled on inter-city travel. The Matrix is layered by
velocity zones where the vertical dimension accounts
for “generality-specificity” from above to below : The
higher one travels, the faster one can move, the less
there is to see. As one descends, and slows, the
Matrix fills in with detail, until one is walking down the
streets.
5 Additional research:
Semiotics
A general science of signs that includes linguistics, semiotics looks at the structure of language as
a functioning system of signs.
According to De Saussure’s theory of dyadic signs, the sign is divided into the tangible part
(signifier or acoustic image) and the conceptual part (signified or concept). The signifier doesn’t simply
express the signified, there is a correlation between them two and the situational context in which a
sign can mean – the meaning of a sign only exists when an observer is present and the way a sign
means can change depending on the situation, culture and a few other variables.
Linguistics and challenges of computer-driven meaning recognition :
The process of automatically extracting meaning from a text shows that it is difficult indeed to treat
linguistic knowledge as a generality. The general knowledge we can associate to words is not always
relevant because it doesn’t exist a general characterisation of the whole language ; on the contrary,
there is dramatic differences between registers (or sub-languages). A sub-language is characterised
by its limited dimensions, its structural and semantic systematisation : the lexis is limited and only a
few different types of phrases can be found. It corresponds to the language used in a particular
domain (e.g. scientific, technologic …)
Therefore, it doesn’t make much sense to do semantic acquisition outside a sub-language : Words
behaviours are not all predefined but « emerge » in the context they are used. But by working at the
level of words by associating them with basic meanings, adjustable et definable, we can end up
constituting an evolving core of meaning.
Random searches and serendipity
Rather than looking for some very rational way of mapping, I also considered using internet search
engines in a very creative way to get unexpected or surprising results that can stimulate or generate
associations between words or pictures, sometimes in a very poetic manner. I realised it could be
interesting to get unusual relations between things as a way to foster creativity in the individual. I
looked at the following examples, even though I haven’t carried out any experiments myself.
www.douweosinga.com
www.jwz.org/webcollage
www.motorhueso.net
http://incident.net/works/incidence
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Online collaboration, emergence
Emergence is a behaviour that was first observed experimentally following a slime mold
aggregation that found its way through a maze without any apparent cognitive resource: It can be
defined as the ability of self-organization within a decentralized system, assuming that a meaningful
whole can be developed from the interactions of many elements acting on very simple rules. The
principle of emergence can be found in websites such as Amazon.com where users purchases and
selections actually contribute to the site’s structure and displays.
An other example can be found in Alphaworlds, a collaborative environment between online users
building their virtual house, thus resulting in a collective city planning.
6 final piece : collaborative map of web knowledge
As shown in my research, users collaboration can be an great way to generate meaningful bigscale structures, rather than relying merely on self-organising and automatic parsing, still facing
linguistics issues.
Let’s get back to Patterson’s Great Bear : The title refers to a re-interpretation of constellations
symbolically ‘mapping the sky’, purporting to give us a real life 'classification' or systemisation while
they are in fact merely naming sets of stars arbitrarily, giving us a reflection of the system inside the
mind of the ancients, and questioning how we, as individuals, would systemise the same information :
'People say "Why did you put this person there, I would have put somebody else".
Obviously I placed the names in a way that is particular to me, but I like the feeling that
nothing is fixed. Its almost like a game that people can participate in. The idea of the viewer
finishing the work is important. It is not a code that people have to decipher. The meaning is
not prescribed.'
Pirman, Alenka (1997) Interview with Simon Patterson, Sculpture, January
1997, vol 16 no 1, pp 21, 22
An digital update of this work could consist of an online interactive piece in which users could type
in their own queries, and according to some algorithm figuring out its relevance, the submission would
be placed automatically on the map by looking at its relevance to others. Such an algorithm exists
already: Google sets (http://labs.google.com/sets) is a programme able to understand a concept as
part of a set and to predict a series of similar concepts.
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Functions of this map :
search query a word, look for occurrences on the map
select click on an occurrence, focus on a sub-topic (semantic zooming), browse another
topic (horizontal dimension)
display automatically generate displays of environing web pages, featuring different
relevance levels and their browsing history
edit add contents to the map, simply by searching and browsing a specific area.
The idea that nothing is fixed is underlain within this map in constant expansion, allowing people
to dig out ever more and ‘expose’ content of unsuspected web pages in particular areas of interest.
This collaborative map of web knowledge, aiming to create suggestions, connections, highlight
similarities between topics and ideas, is no longer a still object but the remnant of an experience that
has been produced by every user: It is constituted like a collective memory.
7 Conclusion
This project is about building an Ontology : In computer science, this is the attempt to formulate
an exhaustive and rigorous conceptual schema within a given domain, a typically hierarchical data
structure containing all the relevant entities and their relationships and rules within that domain.
Possible continuations of the project : to surround physical space with an evolving physical
model, or a VR installation with wall projections. possibility for the visitor to print out a portion of the
map in the context of an exhibition.
Technical development:
In the eventuality of a 3D version, sets of VRML could be generated instantaneously thanks to
PHP script used to extract data from web pages. There is also possibilities to use an external device
such as a joystick or a VR glove for the spectator to navigate freely in the 3D space. Google web APIs
are a programming solution for developing an application querying Google and its 3 billion web
indexed documents. More at http://www.google.com/apis/
Further research : semantic web and challenges of automated meaning recognition, which are
currently one the hottest research areas in computer science.
See the work by two French scientists about semiotics and information networks :
Foliated semantic networks (Dr Robert Marty, Université of Perpignan, France)
Sensnet project (Serge Fleury, Université Paris 3)
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References
Books:
BENEDIKT, Michael (1991) Cyberspace, first steps. Cambridge: MIT Press.
BUREAUD, Annick (2000) Le cyberespace : entre topos et nomos, Art Press, n° 259.
DE KERCKHOVE, Derrick (1997) Connected Intelligence : The Arrival of the Web Society.
Sommerville House Publishing.
DODGE, Martin and KITCHIN, Rob (2000) Mapping Cyberspace. London: Routledge.
DODGE, Martin and KITCHIN, Rob (2001) Atlas of Cyberspace. Addison Wesley.
ENGELI, Maia (2001) Bits and spaces : architecture and computing for physical, virtual, hybrid
realms. Basel: Birkhäuser.
JOHNSON, Steven (2001) Emergence. London: Penguin Books.
MACDONALD, Nico (2003) Information Visualisation, Eye magazine, Vol. 13, pp.52-56.
NIELSEN, Jakob (1989) Hypertext & hypermedia, San Diego: Academic Press.
ROSENFELD, Louis and MORVILLE, Peter (1998) Information Architecture for the World Wide
Web. Sebastopol: O’Reilly.
TUFTE, Edward R. (1990) The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Cheshire: Graphics
Press.
WOOLMAN, Matt (2002) Digital Information Graphics. London: Thames & Hudson.
Websites:
CYBERARTS AND CYBERCULTURE RESEARCH INITIATIVE, Cyberspace Web by George
Landow (2003) Cyberspace, Hypertext and Critical Theory. <http://www.cyberartsweb.org/cpace/>
(updated on 24 January 2002, accessed on 10 November 2003).
CYBERGEOGRAPHY (2003) Cyber geography research. <http://www.cybergeography.org>
(updated on 23 August 2003, accessed on 10 November 2003).
DOUWE OSINGA, Home page (2004) <http://douweosinga.com>
FRY, Benjamin (2000) Organic Information Design. <http://acg.media.mit.edu/people/fry/>
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