VISAP 2020 Overview

The theme for VISAP’20 is Enchantment. We invited and received submissions that enchant in all of the different meanings of the word from its root (“to sing into”) to the myriad of meanings it has acquired since. To enchant is to stop the mind for a moment, in surprise and curiosity, and connect with the extraordinary in the everyday. Enchantment breaks expectations and speaks to old memories or ancient truths in a way that makes us look again and more deeply. Some have suggested that modernity has stripped the world of enchantment because of its bias towards explaining, deciphering, stating, and categorizing. Indeed, many visualizations are designed around these principles. With this theme we place emphasis on our capacity to wonder as the doorway to curiosity, research, and engagement, and on the notion that enchantment can be something that we aim for when creating visualizations. Data visualization is by its very nature striving to represent and translate one form of information into another to understand and influence. If the data itself is seen as objective, the visualization aims to preserve this quality while appealing to human senses which are prone to conditioned biases. Within this year’s theme of enchantment, we invite works in art and design which investigate how enchantment can be used to entice a first look and further create a sustained curiosity about what is being represented. How does one design for enchantment? Where does the intersection of objectivity and wonder lie? How has beauty been implicated in visualization, implicitly or explicitly? How will a new wave of visualizations incorporate the tension between the attention economy and the need to inform precisely and prompt action? Can one ever have too much art? What if the aim is not to precisely inform but to mirror an emotional state about the source of the data? How is success measured? While these themes are best explored, like many art exhibitions, through physical interaction with both the pieces and other audience members, our experience curating this year’s program has prompted us to discover enchantment through an alternate reality. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we have all been challenged to engage with others through shifting conditions and protocols, yet we maintain our fascination with the voices that offer their own stories in the search for meaning. We would like to thank the artists that persevered through challenging situations to complete their works, as well as those who spent their free hours reviewing and piecing the VISAP’20 program together.