Visualising the visual:
Australian prints in the National Gallery of Australia
This blog is a way for me to record developments and ideas for my honours work.
I’m currently completing my honours in creative communication at the University of Canberra. My research question is:
Cultural collections are increasingly digital collections and institutions are making these available online. However, as Sassoon (2009) argues, this process can leave the data decontextualised.
The NGA’s Prints and Printmaking website provides access to over 60,000 works, 15,000 artists and associated information. While the search tool is powerful, it assumes the user understands the database structure and can query it effectively. Schneiderman (1996) shows that visualisation can be a powerful tool for data exploration: how can we use interactive visualisation to explore the contents of this collection, and their contexts, without search?
I’m particularly interested in data visualisation, user interface design, interactive design and website design and development.
I hold a bachelor of Media Arts and Production from the University of Canberra.
- Ben Ennis Butler 2010
(to be updated in November 2011)
Latest post
it’s over.
And it’s done, my final work is as follows:
1. The big histogram – unstacked.
91 x 105 cm, inkjet print
Each column represents a year of printmaking and the columns are made up up individual works.
2. Big histogram – stacked.
300 x 61cm, inkjet print
3. Big histogram – interactive.
I also made an interactive version of the big histogram. Due to copyright restrictions I can’t provide the address, but hopefully I can soon…
4. Gender histogram.
300 x 120cm, inkjet print
Similar to the big histogram but split by gender. Male artists are above and female below.
And some photos of the final setup for assessment:
