The art of data visualization

I thought this video was extremely interesting because they were talking about the beginning of data and how it evolved. They started off by talking about how the first data was recorded through cartography and how the first map was scratched into a piece of stone. To me that is crazy how much it had grown to what we have today. How it went from drawing on a rock to the extensive system we have today of google map, which they reference in the video. Also, how the data that is provided for us is actually doing things and helping us now, especially through google maps, because it navigates for us and follows us as we go to help us get from one place to another. 

         The next part, about knowing if it’s a tiger coming toward you, was also something that was thought provoking to me. I was probably most interested in this part because it went more along the lines of things I am interested in learning about. They talked about how data visualization relates back to science. I have always been interested in the sciences, so this was right up my ally. The way that the human body analyzes the things we see and turns it into data is the very out side of ordinary thinking. Most people do not sit back and think about everything that happens subconsciously while going about life. However, as brought up in the video, there are so many things that happen in our minds that we are unaware of, like thinking if the grass is just moving or if it’s a tiger that’s going to come and eat us. The amount of things that happen in our very own minds that we don’t even know about is so crazy.

         The other thing that we don’t realize is how much of the data we take in comes from visualization. Just about everything we see in a day can provide us with some sort of data, whether it be using google maps, or reading the news or stocks, these things will be taking into our mind and processed in the form of data. But not only that, it may also come from seeing a certain group of people, which would then get processed as data and your mind will tell you what kind of situation you are in for example. The things we see are countless, therefore the amount of things our mind processes in a day is unthinkable.

         Overall, I felt that the video was very straight forward in what they were saying and it was not confusing. I agree with what the people were saying, probably because a lot of what they were saying, especially about the mind processing visual things into data, are things that I have thought about on my own. The only thing that slightly confused me was one of the guys at the end when he talked about the relationship between data and culture. The things he said were just confusing to me for the most part.