KeynotesKeynote speech 1
Is Visualization Underpinned by Communication Theory?
Prof. Min Chen
(University of Oxford, UK)
Abstract
Seven decades ago, Claude Shannon's landmark article "A Mathematical Theory of Communication" (1948) laid down the foundation of modern tele- and data communication, giving rise to information theory as an academic subject. In this talk, the speaker will describe the applications of information theory to visualization and demonstrate how information theory can explain numerous phenomena in visualization. In particular, the speaker will discuss an information-theoretic metric for analysing the cost-benefit of data intelligence workflows, elaborating the values of visualization in such workflows. The speaker will also outline conjectures that the metric may potentially have implications beyond data science.Short Bio
Min Chen developed his academic career in Wales between 1984 and 2011. He is currently the professor of scientific visualization at Oxford University and a fellow of Pembroke College. His research interests include visualization, computer graphics, human-computer interaction, and aspects of computer vision. He has co-authored some 200 publications, including his recent contributions in areas such as theory of visualization, video visualization, visual analytics, and perception and cognition in visualization. He has worked on a broad spectrum of interdisciplinary research topics, ranging from the sciences to sports, and from digital humanities to cybersecurity. His services to the research community include papers co-chair of IEEE Visualization 2007 and 2008, Eurographics 2011, IEEE VAST 2014 and 2015; co-chair of Volume Graphics 1999 and 2006, EuroVis 2014; associate editor-in-chief of IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics; and co-director of Wales Research Institute of Visual Computing. He is currently an editor-in-chief of Computer Graphics Forum. He is a fellow of British Computer Society, European Computer Graphics Association, and Learned Society of Wales.Keynote speech 2
Design after Nature
Prof. Jon McCormack
(Monash University, Australia)
Abstract
Nature has driven us in what and how we create for millennia. Biomimetic approaches to human design are inspired by natural forms, shapes and processes. In computing, nature-inspired algorithms mimic collective behaviour or biological evolution to solve hard problems in search, optimisation and learning. In this talk I’ll show how I have developed a creative visual design practice informed by processes from biological development, the architecture of natural form, and evolutionary processes. My work began by devising advanced visual models of morphogenetic development in plants. Incorporating evolutionary processes allowed designs to emerge that would be difficult or impossible to discover independently, making them “beyond human design”. In later work, I have experimented with evolutionary ecosystems and processes such as niche construction to encourage diversity in the visual style of works generated by algorithmic processes. My most recent work looks at translating from the virtual back to the real, using digital fabrication technologies driven by generative computational processes. The goal is to build dynamic, responsive, intelligent physical systems that interact directly with living organisms, symbiotically affecting their growth and development. This leads to the creation of bio-machine hybrids – bringing the biomimetic concept full circle – and heralding a new form of co-design where human, machine and nature all contribute to the design process.
Short Bio
Jon McCormack is an Australian-based artist and researcher in computing. He holds an Honours degree in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science from Monash University, a Graduate Diploma of Art (Film and Television) from Swinburne University and a PhD in Computer Science from Monash University. He is currently full Professor of Computer Science and director of sensiLab at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. His research interests include generative art, design and music, evolutionary systems, computer creativity, visualisation, virtual reality, interaction design, physical computing, machine learning, L-systems and developmental models.Since the late 1980s McCormack has worked with computer code as a medium for creative expression. Inspired by the complexity and wonder of a diminishing natural world, his work is concerned with electronic “after natures” – alternate forms of artificial life that may one day replace the biological nature lost through human progress and development.
His artworks have been widely exhibited at leading galleries, museums and symposia, including the Museum of Modern Art (New York, USA), Tate Gallery (Liverpool, UK), ACM SIGGRAPH (USA), Prix Ars Electronica (Austria) and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (Australia). He is the recipient of over 16 awards for new media art and computing research including prizes at Ars Electronica (Austria), Images du Futur (Canada), New Voices, New Visions (USA), Alias/Wavefront (USA), The John Lansdown Award for Interactive Media (Europe/UK), Nagoya Biennial (Japan), the 2012 Eureka Prize for Innovation in Computer Science and the 2016 Lumen Prize for digital art (still images). The monograph, Impossible Nature: the art of Jon McCormack, was published by the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in 2005 documenting his creative achievements over the previous 15 years.
McCormack was an ARC Australian Research Fellow from 2010-2015, and has held visiting research positions at the University of Sussex, Goldsmiths (University of London) and the Ars Electronica Future Lab. The book Computers and Creativity (co-edited with Mark d’Inverno) was published in 2012 and described many new approaches to research in computational creativity.
