One picture is worth a thousand numbers. TV weatherpersons don't warn you of an approaching storm by waving a printout of barometric readings at you -- instead, they point to a screen on which a computer translates a vast array of meteorological measurements into a live-action graphic of a weather front moving across a map.
That's one example of "applied visualization," the art/science of using colors, patterns and shapes to generate intuitively comprehensible images from intricately complex data. Organizers of the upcoming AppliedVis 2005 conference say the rapidly growing and potentially lucrative field could find its epicenter right here in artist-populated Western North Carolina.
"The modern world creates enormous amounts of data that must be analyzed in order to reveal the information it contains. The visualization of data makes it understandable and thus, usable," explains John Stevens, chief research officer at UNCA.
And Asheville-based corporate consultant Bob Dunn observes, "Sometimes the right-brain-dominant graphic designer's ability to create a visual metaphor can actually help the left-brain-dominant scientist or businessperson spawn a better ... solution or an entirely novel idea."
Already, media artists, UNCA undergraduate students and scientists from the National Climatic Data Center are using applied visualization to study regional haze drift, and the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute is making visual representations of the radio sky that are similar to the more familiar star maps. The interdisciplinary field has applications in everything from medical testing to urban planning to intelligence analysis.
Underscoring the field's hoped-for potential to put cash in the jeans of WNC's underemployed creative class are North Carolina Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Business Development and Trade Anthony Copeland, UNCA Chancellor Jim Mullen and Dale Carroll, president/CEO of AdvantageWest, all of whom will be giving welcoming remarks at AppliedVis 2005. The conference will include presentations, papers and panels on advances in the state of the art and its regional capabilities, as well as exhibits, demonstrations and awards. It is co-sponsored by UNCA, UNC Charlotte and the Education and Research Consortium of the Western Carolinas, and coordinated by The Southern Appalachian Science and Technology Center of Tryon.
Organizers are inviting artists, students, technologists, researchers and others in business, health care, government and academia to the event, which will be held Thursday and Friday, April 28-29, at the Highsmith University Union on the UNCA campus.
To find out more about AppliedVis 2005, visit www.AppliedVis.org or call 250-3890.
-- Steve Rasmussen