RENDEZVOUS AT CEST-LA-VIZ
ren·dez·vous [noun] — a meeting at an agreed time and place.
Last year, the S-H-O-W Conference by Graphic Hunters was meant to be the last event Goof van de Winkel organized. However, he came back to set up another well anticipated conference by the community, CEST-LA-VIZ, held in Utrecht on Friday, November 15, 2024. Walking into the Anatomiegebouw building, attendees had to write one word to complete the sentence “Data is…”. Some would have more common sayings like, “Data is everywhere”, “Data is messy”, “Data is power”, where others might have more unique answers including, “Data is cooked”, “Data is queen”, “Data is ATAD backwards”, “Data is reflective”, “Data is overthinking”, and many more.
The day before the conference, I asked Goof about the theme. He replied saying, “the topic is a bit hidden this time. The idea is to focus on some topics in data visualization that are important but perhaps not on top of everyone’s mind in the day-to-day practice. We don’t cover all the important topics because there are simply too many. We focus on a few of them.”
Attendees were served with eight captivating talks from experts, each with their own unique story. Beyond the inspirational yet interactive presentations, we also had data-themed games during the breaks—which made the experience all the more rich and immersive.
CEST-LA-VIZ WITH THE CRÈME DE LA CRÈME
crème·de·la·crème [noun] — the best of the best
Pei Ying’s decolonial methodology
The event was opened by Pei Ying Loh with a talk about A Decolonial Approach to Data Storytelling. Together with Kontinentalist, Pei Ying is aiming to bring Asia to the forefront of global conversations by telling stories through visualizations. However, there are challenges in doing so, such as lack of data literacy, lack of familiarity with data visualization, lack of freedom of information legislation (data accessibility), how diversity makes a one-size-fits-all solution difficult, and how there are power imbalances in data and information. She highlights that data visualization as a practice, has a Eurocentric nature—rooted in colonialism.
Martina’s steps to designing a fun workshop
This was followed by Martina Zunica, with the topic The Fun Factor: Boosting Creativity in Workshops. Martina mentioned the aspects considered in designing a workshop, including who the audience are, what the main goal of the workshop is, the tools, what activities or methods can be done, and finally, the fun factor. She has led workshops for different people, including people who are not involved in data, UX/UI designers, data viz enthusiasts, design students, and business analysts. With different approaches tailored to them, such as adding creativity step by step, working in groups or pairs, involving something personal from the participants are what made the workshops fun and engaging.
Stig’s “data is fuel” metaphor
After lunch, Stig Møller Hansen brought a talk on how Data is Fuel. Here, Stig demonstrated how data can be creatively utilized for fueling the creation of captivating visual communication. Stig mentions that you could view design as a subset of data, that part of data is designing how it is presented. But in Stig’s world, he considers data to be a subset of design instead.
Chesca’s immersive data experience elements
Then, Chesca Kirkland, follows with her talk on Immersive Data Experiences. Chesca starts with explaining the components of an immersive data experience. Chesca elaborates on this by showcasing an installation called “The Blue Paradox” which was made to raise awareness about plastic pollution in the ocean. She worked with various mediums to visualize such complex information, and every room in the installation is made immersive, each with different formats.
Till’s types of visualizations in transforming urban spaces
The next speaker, Till Nagel, talked about Transforming Urban Spaces through Embedded Data Visualizations. He titled his presentation “Beneath the Pavement, the Future”. The main thing Till intends to communicate is how to think about new ways to represent our current environment, uncover new possibilities hidden beneath the urban surface or landscape. Till showcased some projects to elaborate on what he means, and this has been summarized into three types of visualizations in this context.
Derya’s feminist data visualizations
Derya Akbaba followed this with the topic, Are Visualizations Haunted? She opened by saying that she designs visualizations that draw on feminist relations. However, when the f-word (feminist) is said, people around her seem to be “afraid” or “annoyed”. Therefore, Derya draws on hauntings as a way to ask deeper questions. She quoted Avery Gordon on hauntings: “Haunting is one way in which abusive systems of power make themselves known and their impacts felt in everyday life, especially when they are supposedly over or when their oppressive nature is denied.” She starts with the notion that data are haunted. Data are haunted by decisions, power, and in some cases, business profit maximization. Some people have the power to collect data. The power to make, is also the power to obscure or hide it. They are constructed artifacts that embody decision-making practices that can reflect power hierarchies. Therefore, data are sites of haunting. Further, she elaborates that visualizations are also haunted. They are haunted by rhetoric and history, including spatial positioning, colors, labels, and visualization conventions in current practices. Visualizations are reflections of design decisions, embedded with a history of objectivity aesthetics, which in reality are subjective. They, like data, are also sites of haunting. To overcome this, Derya proposes the idea of feminist data visualizations
Adina’s take on a good visual news story
In the last session of speakers, Adina Renner, presented her talk on How Can We Engage People through Visual News Stories? She brought the audience through what a typical day as a visual journalist would look like. There are different formats of visual stories which include visual breaking news to help readers grasp the news, visual investigations to help readers understand complex connections, and immersive stories to help readers engage with difficult and complex topics. Adina explained what makes a good visual news story.
With visual investigations, we can offer more transparency and accuracy. With immersive stories, we can transport people to different spaces and time. In the end, the most crucial question to ask is, “did we manage to engage, inform, educate, and inspire our readers?
Erik’s insights on mapping fiction
Erik Escoffier closed the speaker session by presenting about The Art, Tech, and Ethics of Mapping Fiction. Erik discussed a project he worked on, which was to build a fantasy world of books—a gigantic map of literature. They built a map of supposedly all the authors that exist. The proximity is based on Google search proximity. The cities on the maps are the individual books, and the islands are the authors. The size of the islands relates to how famous the author is. Erik talked about how the map was built and what were the lessons learned. After going through different types of maps and brainstorming on what would be the proper way to visualize this, they ended up with a solution which was semi-generative mapping. They used real-world geometries, working with re-projections, transposing geometries, and all that had to work for a large dataset. The resulting map received an abundance of positive feedback from viewers. Yet, some comments made them reflect on their work. It may have perpetuated biases about literature. It revealed gender bias, where not enough female authors were shown as well as Anglocentric bias where most of the books were in English. Erik highlighted an important thing, which was the problem of hyper-specialization.[…] When designers are focused on a very narrow view of a problem, they lose the ability to see the big picture. […] It is a type of tunnel vision that dismisses impact and as a result, alleviates them from their social and ecological responsibility.”
C’EST LA VIE, CEST-LA-VIZ
c’est·la·vie [exclamation] — that’s life
It was such a great pleasure to be able to attend CEST-LA-VIZ. As I participated throughout the day, and heard what the speakers had to say, I looked for a common thread. Pei Ying challenged the Eurocentric nature of data visualization as a practice through proposing a decolonial approach. Martina explored ways to add a fun factor to workshops. Stig opposed the statement that data is facts, with the statement that data is instead, fuel. Chesca challenged the limits of data visualization through immersive data experiences. Till discussed new ways to make visualizations more accessible and engaging for broad audiences. Derya encouraged us to ask questions and to start applying the feminist data visualizations approach. Adina did the same in the process of writing a good visual news story that could engage, inform, and educate readers. And Erik, through reflection, reminded us how something simple and overlooked can perpetuate long-existing biases.
The common thread is no farther than what was written by the organizers. They wrote, “CEST-LA-VIZ is not about accepting the state we are in. It is about asking questions, discussing boundaries, and exploring new ways”. Might I add that the French expression—that the name of the event was supposed to sound like—c’est la vie, is used to express acceptance in the face of a certain (unpleasant or difficult) situation. The conference highlights that we should, to some extent, challenge this. Instead of merely accepting, we should start to ask questions, go beyond boundaries, and explore new ways.
Acknowledgements
I would like to acknowledge and express my gratitude to Chesca Kirkland for providing the remarkable photographs featured in this article and to Sophie Sparkes for the captivating illustration that beautifully complements the content. Finally, a heartfelt thank-you goes to Goof van de Winkel for organizing the conference and for graciously inviting the Data Science and Society Students from the University of Groningen to attend and participate in the CEST-LA-VIZ conference.
Imaji is a final-year Data Science and Society bachelor student at the University of Groningen from Jakarta, Indonesia. She is deeply interested in topics such as data analytics, data visualization, and machine learning, with a passion for combining analytical insights with creative expression.
Dario is an Assistant Professor of Sciences and Technology Studies at the University of Groningen, and a faculty associate at Harvard University. His research is rooted in design, data, and humanities; focusing on the mapping of science and more broadly on digital archives of cultural institutions. With Metis Press, in 2021 he authored Mapping Affinities — a book about charting scientific communities from a design-driven, ethical thinking.
