Abstract
The issue of aesthetics in science has become more and more prominent as science communication is increasingly involved with creative representations of scientific data in the digital era. Aesthetics play a critical role in improving the efficiency of communication in science among specialists and communication about science between the specialists and the general public. This volume The Aesthetics of Scientific Data Representation: More than Pretty Pictures edited by Lotte Philipsen and Rikke Schmidt Kjærgaard takes up the urgency to explore the intricacy of aesthetics in science representation. The book adopts cross-disciplinary perspectives to unpack the aesthetics, epistemic and communicative mechanisms of contemporary scientific data representation. It includes 12 chapters on the representation of scientific data across boundaries of natural sciences and social sciences, moving from the molecular scale of the biosciences to the scale of the whole universe, involving visual and sonic data representations, and covering representations for specialists and non-specialists.
The exploration starts from a case discussion about a hand-drawn watercolour painting of a bacterium in Chapter 1 ‘Visualizing the Bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae’ by Engholm et al. The chapter exemplifies the process of transforming data from the laboratory to the final painting. The complexity of the case brings out theoretical issues of the representational mechanisms of diagrams as related to iconic images in Chapter 2, ‘Diagrammatic and Iconic Imagery in Science’ by Stjernfelt. The case of the watercolour painting in Chapter 1 is used to exemplify the shared and distinctive representational mechanisms of diagrams and iconic images. Chapter 3, ‘Scientific Data Visualization: Aesthetic for Diagrammatic Clarity’ by Krzywinski, moves beyond the pragmatic discussions of diagrams and probes into the role of aesthetics for diagrammatic clarity from the perspective of the relationship between form and function, demonstrating how aesthetic choices can function to increase the clarity of scientific diagrams. Chapter 4, ‘Plant(ing) Aesthetics between Science and Art’ by Philipsen, maps different mechanisms of aesthetic judgment of taste in science, art and critical design, and argues that the aesthetic ideals of each representation type are shaped by corresponding institutional frameworks of existence.
Chapter 5, ‘Visualizing the Invisible Universe’ by Hannestad, explores the representation of the invisible universe. The development of astrophysical visualization has been reviewed to highlight the epistemic value of visualization for the scientific exploration of the universe. Chapter 6, ‘The Epistemics of Data Representation: How to Transform Data into Knowledge’ by Samuel, switches from the macro-cosmos to the micro-cosmos of human cells, furthering the discussion of the epistemic function of representation by addressing how data measurements are transformed into visual representations and how they contribute to the formation of theories. Both chapters hold the position that representations have the power to actively influence the direction of scientific research and shape the development of scientific hypotheses. Shifting away from the focus on the semiotic sign-based visual mode of representation, Chapter 7, ‘Sonification and Audification as Means of Representing Data’ by Søndergaard and Vandsø, moves into the domain of the representation of the inherently energetic sonic data. It addresses how sound is constituent of our relation to data and ultimately to our ideas and understandings of the world.
While previous chapters focus on science visualizations for specialists, Chapters 8 and 9 attend to a broader audience group. Chapter 8, ‘Scientific Storytelling: Visualizing for Public Audiences’ by Veldhuis, investigates ways to develop and display storytelling visualizations of science for non-specialist audiences in various settings. Chapter 9, ‘Communicating Science: Aesthetic Choices in Publishing’ by Krause, presents the production process of covers for the journal Nature, revealing the interplay between theoretical constructs of aesthetics and real-world best practices of visual representation.
Building on previous chapters, Chapter 10, ‘Ideas in Actions: Using Animation to Cut Through Complexity’ by Rafner and Kjærgaard, explores the possibility of extending software tools from the entertainment industry into active research tools for science, and questions corresponding aesthetic implications. Chapter 11, ‘Making Sense, Nonsense, and No Sense When Representing Audio-Visual Collections’ by Madsen, taps into broader discussions about digital culture, big data, user-generated content and presence theory. It reconsiders methods for organizing and visualizing large data sets, in particular audio-visual collections. Chapter 12, ‘“Facts” – and Representational Acts’ by Kyndrup, wraps up the volume by drawing upon cases and examples from previous chapters to provide a basic, theoretical understanding of what constitutes the notion of ‘representation’.
The volume provides fresh insights into how and why science could be and should be visualized, and the aesthetic, epistemic and communicative functions of visualization for science development. The chapters mainly adopt a process-oriented perspective into the production of science visualization, making the book a unique contribution to the studies of visual communication that are inclined to focus more on the product than the production. Knowledge about the production process will enrich our interpretations into the meanings of visuals in science communications, and further our understandings about their functions as well. With rich insiders’ information on how science has been visualized, the book can provide valuable reading material for researchers interested in scientific data representation.
Despite being inspired by the chapters, I was deeply puzzled throughout the reading. I found it difficult to follow most of the chapters without explicit information about methodology, which is concerned with the principles of the methods, concepts and procedural rules employed by a scientific discipline (Bhattacherjee, 2012). For example, the case studies reported in Chapter 9 on covers of the journal Nature merely record the design procedures without any information on how and why certain details are selected and presented, and what kind of theoretical perspective could be adopted to understand the reported phenomenon. It is possible that the edited volume purposefully backgrounds the methodological information for its purpose of being cross-disciplinary. In my view, however, issues about methodology are of utmost importance to a book for readers from various disciplinary backgrounds. Since ‘different scientific domains have different understandings of “data”, “representation”, “aesthetics”’ (p. xii); information about discipline-specific methodology can provide readers with varied points of departure and directions for unpacking the complexities of these concepts and relevant practices.
There is no doubt that we need to cross the borders of disciplines to understand the aesthetics of scientific data representation and the broader field of visual communication. The book is revolutionary in the direction of cross-disciplinarity. Meanwhile, its pioneering endeavours have brought to the table the unavoidable challenges of how to cross the borders without being lost, while at the same time not being confined by one’s core discipline.
