S-H-O-W, June 1 & 2, 2023


How can we be playful in our designs without losing contact with our audiences? How can we keep experimenting with data visualisations? How do we stimulate our own creativity and create a diverse and fantastic world based on data? National and international speakers from the field of data art, data research, data journalism, and data design, will share and reflect on their work. Dive into the world of maps, data products, photography, generative art, cultural collections and AI. Be inspired, share your own experiences and never stop experimenting.

PLAY - PAUSE - STOP.

S-H-O-W is a two day event with talks, discussions, workshops, music and other activities. This year we have a walking diner at the end of the first day, so there is plenty of opportunity for connecting and networking. The entire conference will be in English. You can join the conference on location in Utrecht or (only the first day) online. Please note that all time indications are CEST.

Enjoy the S-H-O-W.


Schedule


THURSDAY, JUNE 1

10:00 – 10:10         OPENING AMANDA PATIST
BIO
Amanda is a Self-Service Analytics coach at Cargill, where she helps to empower people to make data driven decisions locally, quickly and reliably. Amanda started her data journey in Biomedical Science and made the change to data viz when she joined The Data School at the Information Lab in London. Since moving to Amsterdam, she has joined the board of Viz for Social Good and has helped to set up Data Plus Women in The Netherlands. Amanda was the moderator of the previous S-H-O-W conferences.
10:10 – 10:40         MICHAEL BRENNER
TALK
VIZ IN THE WILD - A WAY OF SEEING.
As a designer, Michael is constantly searching for ways to express, interpret, communicate, and give data a form that others can experience or interact with. Sometimes that expression can be explanatory, meant only for consumption; other times, exploratory, aimed at allowing people to draw their own conclusions; or even participatory, where people find themselves in the data. However, it can be difficult to know which mode to choose. When designing, where you begin and where you eventually end up can be two radically different places. Viz in the wild has been a tool for sketching that is part observation, part editorial thinking, part design and 100% random.

BIO
Michael is head of design at Data4Change. With over 15 years of experience working as a designer specialising in data visualisation and information design, Michael has collaborated and led on projects for organisations such as the UN, World Bank, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Google, Guggenheim Museum, MOMA, New York Times and more. He has worked for leading design studios in New York City, London and Rotterdam, where he ran his own studio and taught at the Willem de Kooning Academy.
10:40 – 11:10         BEATRICE GOBBO
TALK
THE THEATRE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE MACHINES.
In the last decades, the term visual explanation achieved some degree of notoriety when those types of artifacts began to be employed for explaining complex artificial machines such as Artificial Intelligences and their algorithms. Current Artificial Intelligence machines have been defined in the literature as black boxes, socio-technical assemblages, unstable objects, and megamachines. In this regard, their increasing complexity and influence in the lives of many human beings have generated the need to unravel their composition and, as far as possible, their inner workings. Within the context of this challenge, information designers' expertise in reducing cognitive complexity plays a pivotal role.

In the talk, historical approaches depicting visual explanations of artificial machines will be discussed, with a perspective of exploring what insights can be gained from visual strategies used in the past to explain complex mechanisms. Precisely, the talk will narrate from an information design perspective how techniques and visual strategies for explaining the inner workings of artificial machines have changed throughout history, considering relevant events that had an impact on the development of scientific knowledge dissemination like the first "Great Exhibition" or the publication of the "Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers"..

BIO
Beatrice is an Assistant Professor in the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies at the University of Warwick. She received her PhD in Design from the Design Department of Politecnico di Milano where she was a member of the DensityDesign Lab. Her work and academic interests are positioned at the intersection between information design and computer science. In her PhD thesis "Embalming and Dissecting AI. Visual Explanations for the General Public" she describes a mixed methodology for approaching the Explainable Artificial Intelligence issue from a communication design perspective.
11:10 – 11.50         BREAK
11:50 – 12:20         MARK-JAN BLUDAU
TALK
VISUALISING CULTURAL COLLECTIONS: FROM ABSTRACT QUESTIONS OF REPRESENTATION TO CONCRETE DESIGN IMPLEMENTATIONS.
The digitisation of cultural collections has become an important task for institutions such as museums, libraries, and archives. As they present their collections and data on the web, the need for innovative approaches to interface design and information visualisation becomes increasingly important. However, there is a scarcity of concepts that break away from conventional grid and search-based layouts, towards interfaces that provide unrestricted exploration of artifacts and artworks.

The talk will cover recent research on visualising cultural collections, highlighting the typical difficulties in handling cultural heritage data. Based on the experience with cultural collection interfaces at the UCLAB, the talk will showcase project processes, difficulties faced, and outcomes from collaborations with cultural heritage collections.

BIO
Mark-Jan is a Berlin-based data visualisation designer and developer working as a research associate at the UCLAB of the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam. His expertise is in information visualisation, specifically digital humanities, cultural heritage data, and interaction techniques. He holds a M.A. degree in Interface Design from the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam and is pursuing a PhD at University of Rostock's Institute for Visual & Analytic Computing. His research focuses on developing novel interaction techniques for exploratory interfaces and seamless transitions between multiple levels of abstraction and granularity.
12:20 – 12:50         OLIVIA VANE
TALK
DATA VISUALISATION AT THE ECONOMIST.
Olivia joined The Economist's data journalism team in 2021 after a number of years writing software in the Digital Humanities. This talk is a behind-the-scenes look at how data visualisations are made at The Economist. Olivia will walk through interactive data projects that crunch through global cultural datasets - from pop music to dog breeds - and talk about what they reveal about us. She will shed light on how visualisations move from prototypes to publication, and contrast visualising data in a newsroom environment with her time in research.

BIO
Olivia is a data visualisation designer and software engineer based in London; she works at The Economist. Much of her work has been creating visualisations of large cultural datasets, for example digitised collections of paintings, photographs, artefacts, maps, and newspapers. She was a Research Software Engineer at the British Library and The Alan Turing Institute, applying computational methods to large-scale historical data. Prior to this she did a PhD at the Royal College of Art, entitled 'Timeline Design For Visualising Cultural Heritage Data'. She has created visualisations for institutions including the Smithsonian, the V&A Museum, and the Nordic Museum, Stockholm. Olivia is also an Ambassador and Featured Creator at Observable, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
12:50 – 14:00         LUNCH BREAK
14:00 – 14:30         MUSHON ZER-AVIV
TALK
TOWARDS TELEPORTATION.
Your GPS app directs you turn-by-turn on the quickest route from A to B. At the same time, it also defines time as the single, non-exchangeable currency for evaluating the cost of the journey. To do so, the app flattens the multi-dimensional complexities of the world into a 2-dimensional map, and then further condenses them into a 1-dimensional route, optimized for the ultimate elimination of time and space down to 0-dimensions - effectively, teleportation. The talk highlights teleportation's depiction in an 80's horror classic, its echoes in the current rush towards automation, and its role in the untimely death of the Waze Carpool service. As an early designer of Waze maps, the speaker argues that user-centered-design has segmented us into isolated, self-driving boxes going nowhere fast. The answer, he posits, may be found in a return to mapping, not as a replacement for the territory, but as an ongoing collaborative process for sensing our paths forward and navigating our every turn-by-turn towards better futures..

BIO
Mushon is a designer, researcher, educator and media activist based in Tel Aviv. His love/hate relationship with data informs his design work, art pieces, activism, research, teaching, workshops & city life. Mushon is currently writing a non-fiction book on "Friction and Flow" - a design theory of change. Among Mushon's collaborations, he is the co-founder of Shual.com (a foxy design studio), SpeculativeTourism.com (audiotours through the futures of cities). Normalizi.ng (discover what normal people look like), the AdNauseam extension (clicking ads so you don't have to), YouAreNotHere (a tour of Gaza through the streets of Tel Aviv), Kriegspiel (a computer game version of the Situationist Game of War), and multiple government transparency and civic participation initiatives with the Public Knowledge Workshop. Mushon also designed the maps for Waze.com and led the design of Localize.city.

His creative work has been exhibited worldwide in museums such as the MoMA in New York and the SFMOMA in San Francisco; presented in festivals and biennales such as Ars Electronica, Offf, Future Everything, Re:publica, Transmediale and Manifesta; and awarded prizes and grants from PrixArs, Rhizome, Turbulence, The Victoria & Albert Museum, Science Gallery Dublin, the Swiss Confederation and others. Mushon is an alumni of Eyebeam, an art and technology center in New York. He teaches digital media as a senior faculty member at Shenkar School of Engineering and Design. He has previously taught new media research at NYU and Open Source design at Parsons the New School of Design and in Bezalel Academy of Art & Design.
14:30 – 15:00         LETICIA POZZA
TALK
EMBRACING THE OBSESSIVE DATAVIZ PROFESSIONAL IN US.
If you appreciate the interactive dataviz pieces that have taken special measures to make it load for everyone - but also make it interesting - this talk is for you. If you notice the small design features, details, preciseness in other's work - this talk is for you. If you often have to stop yourself from suggesting more things to deliver to your client - that hasn't even been asked in the first place - this talk is for you. If you ask yourself why people are like this - it can also be for you to understand and appreciate them.

In a business world that lives for scalability, Leticia has been more and more keen on the creative, take-your-time kind of projects and people. But, whether it is as independent workers, small or big teams, we often struggle with saying "this is enough". This talk celebrates the crazy in her, in you and in others, embracing the good and the bad that comes with it, and perhaps, discussing when enough is enough. Let's enjoy this ride together!

BIO
Letícia is the CEO & Head Data Strategist at Odd.Studio. She leads the company to achieve its overall business goals, and the team to kick-start, strategize and plan projects. She has more than 10 years of experience in data projects in all sorts of industries, holds a Master in Data & Design and Business. She is a fan of great data storytelling and anything involving cats, traveling and wine. Letícia is Brazilian and is based in Barcelona.
15:00 – 15:45         BREAK
15:45 – 16:15         NADIEH BREMER
TALK
AMIDS THE VISUALISATION AND ART OF DATA.
Exploring the fluid approaches that exist between a visual falling firmly in the data visualisation realm and one that is clearly intended as data art. Nadieh will take you through a journey across several of her (recent) projects to try and understand how to move between the two, or even better, fall somewhere in the middle.

BIO
Nadieh is a data visualisation artist that once graduated as an Astronomer, started working as a data scientist before finding her true passion in the visualisation of data. As 2017's "Best Individual" in the Information is Beautiful Awards, and co-writer of "Data Sketches", she focuses on visuals that are uniquely crafted for each specific dataset, often using large and complex datasets while employing vibrant color palettes. She's made visualisations and art for companies such as Google News Lab, Sony Music, UNICEF, the New York Times and UNESCO.
16:15 – 16:45         MANUEL LIMA
TALK
ETHICAL DATA VISUALISATION IN THE AGE OF NUMBING.
Information design and data visualisation are powerful media for bringing to light topics, events, and facts that would otherwise be left hidden. Yet they aren't always able to evoke the right type of human emotion. In this talk we will look at how data visualisation can contribute to desensitization and number numbness, and what we can do to mitigate it.

BIO
Manuel is a RSA Fellow. TED Speaker. design lead, startup mentor, and educator. Currently he is the global Head of Design at Interos.ai. He has experience designing digital experiences and leading product teams at companies like Nokia, Microsoft and Google. Manuel is the author of three bestseller books. A next book will be published in May: The New Designer. Manuel spoke at 100+ events around the globe and his talks have been watched by 3M+ people.
16:45 – 19:45         DRINKS AND WALKING DINER

FRIDAY, JUNE 2

09:30 – 12:30         WORKSHOP ROUND
You need to choose one of the workshops:
- Designing Better Data Products from a Dataviz Perspective with Leticia Pozza
- Charting Futures with Mushon Zer-Aviv
09:30 – 12:30         WORKSHOP - MUSHON ZER-AVIV
WORKSHOP
CHARTING FUTURES.
We use data from the past to predict the future, but what lies ahead is not a single, linear path. Instead, there are multiple potential futures. To navigate these possibilities, we need appropriate methodologies and visual representations. This workshop invites participants to examine the various visualisations of futures and how they map different possibilities. We will explore different types of charts and metaphors for time, and how they can be used to represent the future. By the end of the workshop, you may have more questions than answers, but both will help you better understand, visualise and navigate the futures, visually.

This workshop is open for 30 participants.
10:00 – 12:30         WORKSHOP - LETICIA POZZA
WORKSHOP
DESIGNING BETTER DATA PRODUCTS FROM A DATAVIZ PERSPECTIVE.
Projects usually come to the Odd studio with the same request: "I want to develop a dashboard", which is usually followed by Leticia’s comment of "that's a great format, but is that what your user needs?". Through a brief moment of confusion Leticia explains that more important than the chosen format is the combination of elements of your user, the output and data shown, and finally the selected format. We tend to put everything dataviz into one form of portraying it (dashboards), but there are actually many ways that could be explored - and could generate more adoption and engagement - that we don't talk about.

In this 2.5-hour workshop we will go through a series of discussions of the possibilities of data products - products that could only exist because of data. By exploring different scenarios, users and situations, we aim to break the mold of the traditional digital dashboard, and discuss when other formats may be more adequate. In a 10-step proprietary method canvas developed to design data products, we will talk about interfaces and experiences in data that go from representing databases, visualisation and algorithms. It will be inspirational but hands-on, giving you something you can apply in your day-to-day work with team members and clients.

Join Leticia in saying we don't need more dashboards in this world, we just need better data products. Hope to see you there!

This workshop is open for 70 participants.
12:30 – 13:30         LUNCH BREAK
13:30 – 15:00         WORKSHOP ROUND
You need to choose one of the workshops / activity:
- Viz in the wild - An exploratory workshop into the unknown with Michael Brenner
- Co-Designing Cultural Collection Visualisations with Mark-Jan Bludau
- TalkSHOW with Evelina Judeikyte, Olivia Vane, Nadieh Bremer and Manuel Lima
13:30 – 15:00         WORKSHOP - MICHAEL BRENNER
WORKSHOP (Sold out)
VIZ IN THE WILD - AN EXPLORATORY WORKSHOP INTO THE UNKNOWN.
Have you ever been walking down the street, or have been sitting somewhere or simply just looking around your surroundings day dreaming and observing? Chances are you have! Have has something ever caught your eye… and thought to yourself… “Hey, you know what? That would make for a really cool data visualisation!” And then quickly dismissed it or captured it on your phone but then it got lost amongst those really cool vacation picks?

If you’ve got a phone chances are you have a camera… and if this is the case and you’re curious about a new way of sketching or simply playing around you’ve come to the right workshop.

This Viz in the wild exploratory workshop will be mostly a group of curious people taking pictures, observing new things, finding new perspectives and exploring situational context… You might be asking yourself what the heck does this have to do with data visualisations?

The only way to find out is to join us for an 1.5 workshop where we will explore ideas, wrangle some fictitious data and write some whity captions. What you’ll need for this workshop: a phone with a camera, an open mind, lots of questions that need exploring and some sort of social media account.

This workshop is open for 20 participants.
13:30 – 15:00         WORKSHOP - MARK-JAN BLUDAU
WORKSHOP (Sold out)
CO-DESIGNING CULTURAL COLLECTION VISUALISATIONS.
Digitisation opens up new possibilities for access to cultural heritage data and new opportunities for information visualisation. Based on experiences in conducting workshops with cultural institution partners, co-design techniques can offer effective methods for developing novel, meaningful visualisations that are well-received by all stakeholders involved. In this hands-on workshop, participants will practically learn about an interdisciplinary co-design method to devise ideas and approaches for the visualisation of cultural collections and critically engage with them. Participants will work with visual material and data of cultural heritage collections to create approaches in the form of analog image collages, followed by a critical discussion. No previous experience in visualisation techniques is necessary.

This workshop is open for 25 participants.
13:30 – 15:00         TALKSHOW WITH EVELINA JUDEIKYTE
TALKSHOW.
An interview about....dataviz, creativity and play. With interviewer Evelina Judeikyte, and guests Olivia Vane, Nadieh Bremer and Manuel Lima. Of course you can ask questions yourself as well.

BIO
Evelina is an information designer with almost a decade of experience in data and communication. Today, she runs Parabole Data Studio - a data storytelling and design agency that helps organisations communicate their impact through engaging data stories. She's worked with clients such as Dior, the French Ministry of Finance, the Lancet and more. Evelina also facilitates the growth of the data visualisation community by organising the global Outlier conference and the local Data Visualisation Paris meetup.

This talkSHOW is open for 70 participants.
15:00 – 15:30         BREAK
15:30 – 16:00         VIOLA BERNACCHI
TALK
SEEING DATA VISUALISATION AS A TOOL, RATHER THAN A NECESSARY GOAL.
Dealing with data is dealing with choices, choices on the interpretation of the data, what is highlighted, what algorithms are to be used, do you show all the data there is, and is all the data complete. Data does not exist independently of the ideas, instruments, practices, context and knowledge that we use to generate and process it. When applying a visual form to data, there is a framework of thought that considers a rightful fit of meaning and representation.

How can our role as designers in making choice that convey invisible relationships affect our daily life? What if exposing the process become more important than a trustworthy communicative outcome?

BIO
Viola is an Italian designer and data visualiser based in The Netherlands. Her design approach combines a theoretical background with a strong interest in building visual systems that make complex issues understandable.

She joined RNDR, a design studio for interactive media, where her practice explores the relation between code and design. Using data as a tool, she works with the team on a wide range of projects, from physical and interactive exhibitions to generative visual identities, for cultural institutions, universities and innovative clients worldwide. In the past years, she has given extensive workshops on designing with data, she currently teaches Information design at the Geo-design Master at Design Academy Eindhoven.
16:00 – 16:30         TOM KORTBEEK
TALK
ARABIDOPSIS SYMPHONY.
Arabidopsis Symphony shows us that there is more to a simple plant than meets the human eye. In this interactive outdoor experience involving augmented reality and music, visitors dive into the lively inner world of the 'Arabidopsis Thaliana', an inconspicuous plant that exists all around the world, but grows and develops differently due to local climate, weather and soil conditions. Through complex adaptations in genes and hormones, the Arabidopsis Thaliana directly responds to changes in its environment. In Arabidopsis Symphony, augmented reality and music are combined to translate these invisible processes into an immersive experience that tells us: plants are not that different from humans after all. Because of real-time, location-based input, the experience is never the same.

Arabidopsis Symphony has been on exhibition in Vienna, Detroit, Atlanta and Eindhoven. In 2023 it will be on exhibition in Anchorage, Tokyo and again Eindhoven.

BIO
Tom is co-founder of Fillip Studios. Fillip Studios was founded by designer Roos Meerman together with Tom with the mission to turn wonder into impact - because all progress starts with wonder. From an idealistic-realistic view, the studio develops artistic concepts and design research and continuously seeks cooperation with universities, institutions, museums and commercial companies. With Pi Lab (founded in 2020), Fillip Studios bridges the gap between design, science and technology: artists, scientists and engineers jointly research the new creative and innovative possibilities within mathematics and physics. In the coming years, this research will lead to new works of art, new scientific knowledge and innovative applications. The artistic works of the Arnhem-based designers have been exhibited at a.o. Kröller-Müller Museum (NL), Cooper Hewitt Design Museum (New York, VS) en Trapholt Museum (Kolding, DK).
16:30 – 16:50         CLOSING
16:50 – 18:30         DRINKS

Venue



Anatomiegebouw

Anatomiegebouw, Bekkerstraat 141, Utrecht
This historical building, once part of the University of Utrecht, was designed by architect Joseph Crouwel. The theater was used to host lectures on veterinary anatomy. You can still see the rails in the floor where the bigger animals were brought in.
During S-H-O-W, we will be using the whole building, including the Snijzaal and even the garden.

Route

About



S-H-O-W is organised by Graphic Hunters, a training institute on data visualisation
based in Utrecht, the Netherlands. S-H-O-W is about you. It is about meeting, sharing,
learning and connecting with each other. Yes, we have curated talks and workshops,
but plenty of time is dedicated to share experiences with each other in an informal way.
No matter what your background or expertise is.

If you have questions about the conference
please send a mail to SHOW@GraphicHunters.nl.

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIn for news and updates about the event.

if you want to become a partner or sponsor, or want to help out in any other way
please send a mail to SHOW@GraphicHunters.nl

Tickets



JUNE 2023 conference
There are two options to join the event: (1) you can buy a full access ticket that allows you to come to the venue in Utrecht on both days. Or (2) you can follow the first event day online.

Full access ticket (€ 369, including VAT)
FULL ACCESS TICKETS ARE SOLD OUT!

On Thursday June 1 you can listen to a full day of talks in the theatre, get coffee/tea/water during the breaks, enjoy a vegetarian lunch, have some drinks at the end of the day and take part in the walking diner.
On Friday June 2 you can join two rounds of workshops, get coffee/tea/water during the breaks, enjoy a vegetarian lunch, watch the closing talks in the theatre and enjoy some final drinks.

Important to know
When you buy a full access ticket, you need to choose which workshops you want to join. On Friday morning you can join the workshop of Leticia Pozza or Mushon Zer-Aviv. On Friday, right after lunch, you need to choose between a workshop of Michael Brenner, Mark-Jan Bludau or the TalkSHOW. Please note that some workshops have limited spots.

Online tickets (€ 159 including VAT)
We have limited tickets to watch the talks of the first day (June 1) online.

Graphic Hunters offers 15 free diversity tickets.
One of the aims of the conference is to stimulate diversity. Not only in the representation of speakers but also the attendees. If you are or know of anyone who is interested in attending from a under-represented community in data visualisation, or somebody who doesn't have the financial means to join the conference, please send a mail to SHOW@GraphicHunters.nl.

We offer 12 online diversity tickets. So you can watch the talks of the first day. And we have 3 tickets for attending the full event on location. Please note that the diversity ticket only cover the cost for attending the event (so not the costs of for example a hotel or travel tickets).
We will randomly pick the 15 diversity tickets on May 10, 2023.

Registration