[art+tech] FW: Information Esthetics: Lecture Series One; announcement 1

[Mark Tribe]

Information Esthetics: Lecture Series One starts March 31 in Chelsea

People who value clarity and engagement is visual displays, whether as
fine art or on Wall Street, are invited to seven evenings with some of
the field's deepest thinkers and finest practitioners. The series opens
with distinguished typographer Robert Bringhurst at 6:00 pm, March 31
at the Chelsea Art Museum. Fine spirits and snacks will be served. It's
free with the $3 discounted museum admission. InformationEsthetics.org
will soon have details.

---The full version---


Information Esthetics
(i.e.)

Lecture Series One
March-July, 2005


Making data meaningful-this phrase could describe what dozens of professions
strive for: Wall Street systems designers, fine artists, advertising
creatives, computer interface researchers, and many others. Occasionally
something important happens in these practices: a data representation is
created that exposes the subject's nature with such clarity and grace that
it
both informs and moves the viewer. We both understand and care. This is the
focus of Information Esthetics.

Information Esthetics, a recently formed not-for-profit organization, has
organized a lecture series dedicated to helping this happen more often.
World
leaders in seven different aspects of sense-making have been invited to
speak
on topics from typography to visual perception, from charting to electro-
mechanical engineering. The goal: to help expose the beauty experts see in
their databases, better engaging their whole minds in interpretation; to
help
inspire art that's not just decorated with data, but makes the data
readable,
satisfying viewers' minds as much as their eyes and hearts.

The format of the talks lets us explore more deeply than a typical panel or
academic paper presentation. Each speaker will talk for a full hour, we'll
break for a half hour of fine spirits and snacks, then sit down again for an
interview/chat led by series organizer and interaction designer W. Bradford
Paley. The intent throughout is to delve into the implications these
profound
ideas have for human communication in general-but also to share simple
techniques that people can immediately put to use in their own projects.


The lectures will take place Thursday evenings in the Chelsea Art Museum at
565 West 22nd street in Manhattan. They are free with the discounted $3
museum admission, and start promptly at 6:00 pm on these dates:

Robert Bringhurst, March 31 . Typography and layout
     The distinguished Mr. Bringhurst is perhaps the most recognized
     typographer, a published poet, and the author of the fundamental
     contemporary work on typography: "Elements of Typographic Style."
     http://www.typebooks.org/i-r_bringhurst.htm

Judith Donath, April 21 . Social computing
     Dr. Donath's group at the MIT Media Lab studies intriguing social
     interactions and produces some of the loveliest and clearest visual
     representations of these complex systems. She is a well-read and
     careful observer of fine art
     http://smg.media.mit.edu/people/Judith

Ted Selker, May 12 . Situated devices
     Dr. Selker focuses on putting intelligence into everyday objects:
     his invention of the eraser-like IBM Trackpoint device transformed
     laptop keyboards throughout the industry. His MIT media Lab group
     continues to expand those explorations.
     http://web.media.mit.edu/~selker

Lisa Strausfeld, May 26 . Real-time charting
     Ms. Strausfeld is a partner in Pentagram, the respected New York
     design firm. Her dense, readable information displays are well
     structured, visually rich, and intellectually satisfying.
     http://www.pentagram.com/people-strausfeld.htm

Bill Buxton, June 16 . Supporting creative analysis
     Mr. Buxton is a musician, mountain climber, and interaction
     designer; former Chief Scientist of Silicon Graphics; and a well-
     known and controversial computer interface expert. He owns an art
     gallery in Toronto with his wife and has been developing user
     interfaces explicitly for designers for over a decade.
     http://www.billbuxton.com

Ron Rensink, June 30 . Visual perception
     Dr. Rensink is one of the world's experts on "Change Blindness;"
     a feature of the human visual system that allows major changes to
     happen unnoticed right in front of one's eyes, allowing (among
     other things) magic performances to work. He studies human
     perception, discovering and sharing principles useful in design.
     http://www.psych.ubc.ca/~rensink

Tamara Munzner, July 14 . Large data sets
     Dr. Munzner specializes in information visualization: showing
     complexities in subjects that range from genetically-determined
     phylogenetic evolutionary trees to environmental sustainability.
     Her work is informed by an eye developed under her art-teacher
     father, and often reveals structure more clearly as a result.
     http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~tmm


This lecture series is an Information Esthetics production, made possible
by a project of Digital Image Design Incorporated. The talks are presented
by The Project Room at Chelsea Art Museum by producer/curator Nina Colosi,
and are supported in part by the Department of Computer Science at
Columbia University.

Generous volunteer efforts support Information Esthetics, including high-
reliability Web site hosting by Michael Rosenthal, Web site supervision by
Perry Metzger, and (soon) graphic design by Warren Kemp. Please contact i.e.
director W. Bradford Paley if you would like to volunteer, be put on our
mailing list, or otherwise participate.

More information will soon be available at InformationEsthetics.org




W. Bradford Paley

Digital Image Design Incorporated 170 Claremont Suite 6 New York NY 10027
http://didi.com/brad  http://didi.com  http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~paley
http://google.com/search?&q=%22Brad+Paley%22+OR%22+Bradford+Paley%22+-flash
+1 (212) 343-2442 extension 229

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