Data Soliloquies - Hardcover

Hamblyn, Richard; Callanan, Martin John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0903305046 ISBN 13: 9780903305044

Publisher: UCL Environment Institute, 2009

Synopsis

Data Soliloquies is a book about the extraordinary cultural fluidity of scientific data. A wide array of graphs, charts, computer models and other forms of visual advocacy have become inescapable fixtures of public science presentations, though they are often treated as if they were neutral `found objects' rather than elaborate narrative constructions containing high levels of statistical uncertainty. Through a mix of essays and artworks, this witty and engaging book -- the result of a collaboration between Richard Hamblyn and Martin John Callanan during their terms as writer and artist in residence at the UCL Environment Institute -- examines the theatricality of scientific data display, while critiquing some of the poorly designed statistical wallpaper that surrounds so much public science debate.

About this title

About the Author

Richard Hamblyn is an environmental writer and historian; his books include Terra: Tales of the Earth, a study of natural disasters; The Invention of Clouds, which won the 2002 Los Angeles Times Book Prize; The Cloud Book and Extraordinary Clouds (both in association with the Met Office). He is currently editing The Picador Book of Science, and researching a book about man-made landscapes. <P>Martin John Callanan is an artist whose work spans numerous media and engages both emerging and commonplace technology. His work includes translating active communication data into music; freezing in time the earth's water system; writing thousands of letters; capturing newspapers from around the world as they are published; taming wind onto the Internet and broadcasting his precise physical location live for over two years. Martin is currently Teaching Fellow in Fine Art Media at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. <P>The UCL Environment Institute was established in November 2003 as a focus for interdisciplinary environmental research across UCL, as well as to improve links between those who carry out environmental research, and those with need of its findings, notably policy makers and other public and private sector interests.

Edition details

• Publisher: UCL Environment Institute
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0903305046
• ISBN 13: 9780903305044
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 112