Context is King
Posted in FreeTime on May 29th, 2009 by asjsI have an art and design background. One of the key ideas in art (and design) is negative space. Negative space is the area of a drawing or sculpture or whatever that is not the subject. In the illustration bellow The negative space is everything that is not the flowers the vase or the table.
160k in art school education deployed here.
The importance of negative space in establishing things like scale becomes clear when you compare the A and B images. The negative space creates the context for the flowers, and the context in turn helps the viewer infer certain things about the flowers.
The same thing can be true when visualizing data. Placing data sets onto maps creates context around the data. The context allows us to see relationships. Similarly creating a visual timeline out of a list of events (or data points) lets us see better how those events relate by showing us the space between them. FreeTime uses a fixed contextual framework (time) to combine very different data sets. It is this context that allows FreeTime to transform data into information.
July 17th, 2009 5:08 pm
Context and negative space– as an improviser and director I am constantly noticing how the space on the stage and the silences in actors’ performances, stillnesses, and contrasts with other moments CREATES context for storytelling, turning points, and generating meaning. i.e.–”This is significant!”.
Also, the posting on patterns created visually in our world–the use-worn churchsteps and subway maps–resonates with how stage performances and improvised behavior of any sort reveal patterns of aesthetic choice-making as well as patterns of behavior and instinct. The story and scene-structures follow patterns which actor/improvisers seek to portray powerfully, logically, and yet carry a strong subconscious shard archetypal pattern.