Making Data

A valuable counterpoint to the popular idea that data visualization is beautiful, this book provides a thoughtful and pragmatic position on material and experiential manifestations of data. It contains an array of perspectives on the subject, including the history of data’s material manifestations and the challenges of achieving human-centred design with increasingly complex socio-technical problems * Peter A. Hall, Reader in Graphic Design, UAL Camberwell, Chelsea and Wimbledon, UK *This is a fascinating anthology of fresh thinking on how we can understand our world through data. Materialist, sensory and phenomenological approaches to knowledge — long practiced in the Arts — are now having increasing impact on other disciplines. This book provides numerous examples and ideas on how materializing information can lead to more nuanced understandings and heightened engagement with data. Covering theory, practice and methodologies, this is an expansive and unique collection on the materialization of digital information * on McCormack, SensiLab Director, Monash University, Australia *

Ian Gwilt is Professor of Design at the University of South Australia.