The Whale Hunt

Most of you may not know that one of my casual interests is scientific visualization and exploring new ways to display quantitative and complex information. To me this kind of work is a poignant intersection of science and art and I believe that technology gives us some amazing tools to display information in visually appealing and approachable ways to lots of people. I had some great opportunities to do this in my old job and in many ways this interest lead me into the educational technology field.

So, when the 12th Webby Awards were announced last week, I was not at all surprised to see the work of Jonathan Harris recognized yet again. To quote his own bio, Harris's work revolves around "designing systems to explore and explain the human world." (Go here to listen to Harris describe his work.) I guarantee that you will be amazed at the work he has done and my particular favorite has been his Phylotaxis site.

That is, it was my favorite, until today when I explored his Webby Award winning site, The Whale Hunt. A big part of Harris' work has been linking vast quantities of data to a powerful interface for viewing that data. So, rather than pull the data from some outside source, Harris decided to create the data himself by taking thousands of pictures (one every 5 minutes for 7 days) during an expedition to Alaska to join an Eskimo whale hunt. The challenge was to design an interface that told a human story in a deeper way that just viewing the images. So, Harris considered the way we view images and how an interface governs that in order to mimic the experience of living the story. One example (which is astonishingly simple yet simply genius) is to speed up the display of the slide show during periods of the expedition when Harris was experiencing stress or excitement. I encourage you to explore the site. As you do, try to think about how difficult it can be to display complex information and the challenges (and advantages) of doing this online and with technology.

If you're really interested in this topic, check out the work of Edward Tufte, who has written some clever books and essays about displaying quantitative information. His work has applications not only in science, but also in business, education, and art. In particular check out his essay on PowerPoint.