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Technoetic Arts: A Journal of Speculative Research Volume 2 Number 2.

© Intellect Ltd 2004.
Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/tear.2.2.71/0

The Art and Science of Visualization:

Metaphorical Maps and Cultural Models
Donna J. Cox University of Illinois

Abstract Keywords
The author has collaborated in research teams to visualize supercomputer simu- data-visualization
lations and real-time data. She describes these collaborative projects that metaphor
employ advanced-technology graphics and novel digital displays that include mapping
large-format IMAX film, high-definition television productions, and a museum astrophysics
digital dome at the American Museum of Natural History. The popularity of virtual reality
these images and the function that they provide in popular culture are discussed. postcolonial
She also describes two key technologies that she was part of designing:
IntelliBadge(tm), a real-time visualization and ‘smart’ tracking system; and
Virtual Director(tm), a virtual camera choreography and remote collaboration
system. The process of data-visualization involves the mapping of data from
numerical form into an iconic representational form in the attempt to provide
humans with insight and understanding of a phenomenon. This is discussed in
the context of metaphor, cognition, and postcolonial theory. Because data-visu-
alizations carry the ‘weight of scientific accuracy and advanced technology’,
most general audiences confuse these visualizations as ‘real’; however, it is
argued that data-visualizations are models and metaphors, not reality. In
metaphor theory, the mapping of attributes from one domain of information
into another is how humans understand, create, and engender new meaning.
Data mapping is correlated with this theory. The author explores how the use of
mapping information is culturally contingent. In the spirit of scientific inquiry,
she deconstructs the very professional activity for which she is most famous.

1. Background of visualization and technology projects

Since 1985, I have collaborated with scientists and computer technologists
to visualize scientific data from supercomputer simulations at the National
Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of
Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. ‘Renaissance Teams’ are teams of specialists
including artists and designers who collaborate to solve problems in the
visualization of data. The process of scientific visualization involves the
translation of numbers into computer graphics and other computer-medi-
ated imagery. As an artist, I have participated in these collaborations in
several different areas that include the production, direction, design, colour,
and editing of the visuals. Over the years, general audience popularity of
these visualizations has increased. These modern scientific visualizations

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have shaped the views of many people. My NCSA team and I have collabo-
rated on several major projects. In addition, we have developed innovative
software and new technologies. I will describe several of these projects
below.
In 1994, I was Associate Director for Scientific Visualization and Art
Director for the PIXAR/NCSA segment of a large-scale film project. Cosmic
Voyage, an IMAX movie about the relative scale of things in the universe,
was nominated for an Academy Award in 1996. Over 6 million people have
seen this IMAX film. A typical IMAX screen is about 70 feet across; the film
is more than 10 times the emulsion area of a regular Hollywood 35mm
movie. An IMAX theatre is an immersive space because the audience’s field
of view is totally surrounded by image and audio. Computational science
and visualization was an important part of the making of Cosmic Voyage.
The advanced technologies of supercomputing and visualization were
employed to artistically render images of galaxies colliding in swirling paint-
like effects. I collaborated with artists, scientists and technologists to
realize an unprecedented number of computer-graphic visualizations for
the IMAX film. In addition, we were developing new technologies at the
University of Illinois to help create animations for it.
In 1996, Robert Patterson (NCSA), Marcus Thiébaux, then a student at
the University of Illinois, and I created Virtual Director(tm), a software
framework that operates in the CAVE, a room-size, virtual environment with
a rear-screen projection system that allows one to see in three-dimensional
stereo. Virtual Director(tm) is a choreography and navigation system that
enables the user to control the virtual camera, to record frames and to see
the recording on a virtual television screen in the CAVE. Virtual
Director(tm) also provides capabilities to collaborate over the Internet so
that users can interact together even though they may be located at great
distances from each other geographically. Initially, we used Virtual
Director(tm) to create scenes for Cosmic Voyage; however, we have been
developing and expanding upon this software since 1994. We also used
Virtual Director(tm) to interactively work with scientists at the Hayden
Planetarium. Each user has an independent point of view and can navigate
independently while creating and sharing camera paths. Users share the
same visual ‘space’ and see the same environment, and they can fly to dif-
ferent locations within that space. When users meet in cyberspace, they see
their collaborators as avatars. Avatars are visual metaphors for humans in
cyberspace. The original Eastern mythological meaning of ‘avatar’ is the
incarnation of God on earth. In virtual reality, avatar is the incarnation of
the human in virtual space. In the CAVE using Virtual Director(tm) soft-
ware, a user is represented over the network as an avatar and can see other
avatars floating and flying in ‘cyberspace’ space.
To create the following shows and exhibits with the Hayden
Planetarium, we used Virtual Director’s remote virtual collaborative capabil-
ities over the Internet: from our CAVE in the University of Illinois (in the
middle of United States of America) to the New York City digital dome. My
team worked from Illinois and collaborated in real time with the Hayden

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Planetarium staff to design and choreograph camera paths through the

synthetic astrophysical space. The Hayden Planetarium is using the interac-
tive Virtual Director(tm) for evening public interactive shows where the
audience can control the digital dome and the Milky Way galaxy model. This
virtual-reality technology has provided a method of creating animations for
many visualization projects since 1993.
We have collaborated with the Hayden Planetarium, American Museum
of Natural History, in New York City in the production of two ‘space’ shows
in their large digital dome theatre; and also for their Big Bang Theatre
exhibit. A ‘space’ show is here defined as a digital image playback with
audio and music, and people pay to view the show. The first ‘space’ show
was called Passport to the Universe, narrated by actor Tom Hanks, and
opened at the Millennium 2000 New Year’s donor celebration. The second
‘space’ show, The Search for Life, narrated by actor Harrison Ford, opened in
February 2002. Both of these high-resolution, digital shows are exhibited in
the upper hemisphere of a large digital dome (over 9 million pixels), which
provides an immersive experience to 440 people during each 17-minute
show. We created digital visualizations of the large-scale structure of the
universe as well as the local galactic structure near the Milky Way galaxy.
Brent Tully, an astronomer from the University of Hawaii, provided mapped
locations of galaxies from telescopic data. My NCSA team and I created
digital images of a voyage through the cosmos arriving at the large-scale
structure of the universe. Over 2.5 million people have seen this exhibit in
the last couple of years.
We also collaborated with the Hayden Planetarium to provide imagery
for their Big Bang Theatre exhibit, which occupies the lower hemisphere of
the digital dome structure. Modern Big Bang scientific theorists believe that
the universe formed over 15 billion years ago and that hot, dense gas
formed stars and protogalaxies that congregated along filaments.
Astronomers view today’s galactic filamentary structure of the universe
through telescopes. Choreographer Robert Patterson, software developer
Stuart Levy and I worked with astrophysicist Dr Michael Norman to visual-
ize over 500 gigabytes of simulation data to show the evolution of the uni-
verse following the Big Bang. The audience of 200 people can peer over a
railing into a large bowl-shaped digital display to view the digital anima-
tions. Looking into the Big Bang digital display bowl is reminiscent of
peering into a boiling cauldron where hot gas produces strings of galaxies.
Poet Maya Angelou narrates while the audience watches the formation of
the universe in the Big Bang cauldron. This scientific narrative of creation
draws upon the latest technology and scientific theory.
In addition to museums and planetariums, we have also developed
visualizations for broadcast television shows. We produced visualizations
for the high-definition (over 2 million pixels) television Public Broadcasting
System (PBS) NOVA/WGBH show, Runaway Universe. I was producer and
art director for the NCSA visualizations for this one-hour special. The story
describes how scientists map the universe and require visualizations.
Patterson, Levy, and I visualized scientific and astronomical data for this

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programme that was aired in November 2000 and again in July 2001.
Several of the scientific models were the same as in the Hayden exhibits.
The show takes us on a virtual voyage from the early universe, to the for-
mation of our galaxy, out of the Milky Way to the Virgo cluster of galaxies.
This journey is made possible through the use of digital computer-graphics
images, telescopic star catalogue data, and supercomputer simulations. In
addition, we also produced visualizations for the Discovery Channel’s
Unfolding Universe, that premiered in June 2002. We created over seventeen
scenes using data from five scientists and involving several different ren-
derers. These visualizations included a boiling red giant star, tours of super
clusters of galaxies, colliding galaxies, and the first star.
A very recent project, IntelliBadge(tm), involved real-time digital visual-
ization during an academic conference, ‘Supercomputing 2002’ (SC02),
held on 16-24 November at the Baltimore Convention Center, in Baltimore,
Maryland. About 1000 conference attendees volunteered to carry Radio
Frequency Identification (RFID) tags during the events. Our team, NCSA’s
Experimental Technologies group, developed an entire system to provide
attendees with value-added services and real-time visualizations of their
flow patterns during the conference. This system included a real-time data-
base, interactive and playback visualization software, and a web applica-
tion. It gathered radio frequency data, tracked people by their professional
interests, monitored the flow of people in conference events, provided con-
ference statistics, and showed iconic visualizations representing the flow of
people through the physical space of the Convention Center. Participants
were then able to log into the system to check statistics and gather infor-
mation, either at the kiosks or remotely through the IntelliBadge(tm)
website.
Several visualization schemes were used to show the flow of people at
the conference. A scheme called ‘How Does Your Conference Grow’ pro-
vided a garden metaphor with each flower representing a conference event
room. Each flower was scaled according to the number of people in the
room. Each flower had petals that would grow or shrink according to
peoples’ professional interests as people entered or exited the rooms. The
rate at which people flowed in and out of the rooms was represented by the
rate of ants entering and leaving the flowers. The real-time visualization of
the data of people and their interests moving throughout the physical space
employed similar techniques as the other data-driven visualizations. The
garden metaphor was poetic and playful; it was a delight to those who
viewed it. The metaphor was in great contrast to other more conventional
visualizations such as animated bar charts; yet it was data-driven. Instead
of the numbers coming from astrophysics simulations, the numbers were
being generated from people moving within a physical space and correlat-
ing those numbers with their personal profiles. These visualizations were
shown in various locations throughout the Convention Center.
The popularity of data visualizations and their use in public spaces have
increased dramatically since the advance of computer graphics, supercom-
puting, and the Internet. Millions of people have viewed visualizations that

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provide narrative and visual metaphors. People have viewed these images
in large-display, general-audience, immersive environments. These visual-
izations are shaping the reality of cultural beliefs and provide people with a
scientific view of reality. Because they carry the ‘weight of scientific accu-
racy’, most people will believe these visualizations represent the ‘true’ view
of reality, but these visualizations are just models and metaphors, not
reality. To clarify this point, the process of visualization will be analysed in
the next section.

2. The process of visualization: mapping numbers into pic-

tures
Data-visualization is the process of using computer-mediated and digital
technologies to display quantitative and qualitative information. More
specifically, scientific and information visualization is the process of trans-
forming a system of mathematical and scientific models, observations, sta-
tistics, assumptions, instrument recordings, theories, and other data into
animated and interactive visuals that are rendered using two- and three-
dimensional computer graphics. ‘Render’ is defined as the process of creat-
ing the ‘appearance’ of the data. The term ‘data-visualization’ is used here
to specify this process of transforming scientific numerical or information
data (often called ‘informatics’) and to distinguish data-visualization from
other visualizations such as non-data-driven artwork.
The process of data-visualization involves the process of mapping of
data into another form in an attempt to provide humans with insight and
understanding of a phenomenon. The numerical data from observations
(e.g. telescopes) or computations (e.g. supercomputers) is digitally
‘mapped’ (translated) into images, sounds, or other sensory output. This
‘data-mapping’ is the process of making a representation of numbers and
correlated facts according to some convention of representation. What is
visualized in science are usually natural phenomena, measurements of phe-
nomena, or physically and mathematically approximate models of phenom-
ena. Scientists observe the natural world and its phenomena and formulate
theories and models to understand and predict phenomena such as thun-
derstorms. Computational scientists develop mathematical models that are
computed in supercomputers to describe and predict natural phenomena
such as the formation of galaxies. Data can be gathered from other sources
such as the IntelliBadge(tm) database that correlates locations of people
and their interests. Each scientific discipline or information discipline
(informatics) has its own conventions of representations.
There are some basic techniques of data visualization that I will describe
here. When numbers are mapped from instruments such a magnetic
imaging resonance, supercomputer simulations, or other numerical infor-
mation, the data is often ‘edited’, scaled or down-sampled. Down-sampling
means that the data is sampled to a reasonable portion. Datasets are often
terabytes of digits and are too large to be visualized at one time. A process
of one-to-one mapping is almost impossible because the size of the data is
very large and almost always too much data to be displayed in any digital

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pixel image. Numerical information is often altered in order to fit into the
constraints of computer graphics, colour ranges, and pixel resolution.
Icons are generated to represent data. As I mentioned above, each dis-
cipline has developed visual icons or ‘conventions of representation’. For
example, a bar chart is a conventional icon used to relate and compare
quantities. In fact all representations of information require humans to
understand one domain of information in terms of another domain. It is
this process of data-mapping and ‘loosing’ information or the human inter-
pretation of that information that most people do not understand when
they view digital visualizations. The fact remains that all visualizations are
models or metaphors of reality; they are not, in fact, the reality. These data-
visualizations help to organize, analyse, synthesize, and explore hypothe-
ses, and communicate. Data-visualization requires the process of ‘editing’
and making decisions to ‘leave out’ some of the data, because not all of the
data can be visualized at once. Interactive techniques such as ‘progressive
disclosure’ and ‘layering’ of information have been developed to show as
much of the multidimensions of data as possible. Currently, one of the
great challenges to the visualization community is how to integrate data
from many different sources. However, the point that I am trying to make is
that the visualization is a ‘visual model’ and it is a data map. The map is
not the territory. And the data map has attributes that are often lost in the
mapping process.
The art of data-visualization is in the translation of these billions of
numbers into visual information that humans can understand. Most of the
time, this process involves the invention or use of icons or visual
metaphors to help communicate information in ways the humans can
digest it. In data-visualization, the design of icons and metaphors often
employs computer graphics which has its own level of constraints that
include rendering limitations and computing power. This mapping of data
into visual information is where we find relationships with contemporary
metaphor theory.

3. Metaphor theory and cultural contingency

Metaphor is not just a linguistic trick; discourse on metaphor has engen-
dered a paradigm shift in the way that we think about creativity. Over the
last five decades, researchers have generated more than 10,000 articles and
books on metaphor and related studies. In particular, most of these writ-
ings have concentrated on linguistic metaphor and its connection to cogni-
tive processes. Borrowing from the definition of George Lakoff and Mark
Johnson (Lakoff and Johnson 1980), metaphor is more about thinking than
about language. Metaphor involves the cognitive process of understanding
one domain of information in terms of another domain of information. For
example, ‘man is a wolf’ is an English metaphor where a new understand-
ing of man is provided by the cognitive process of mapping characteristics
about ‘wolf’ (e.g. beast, hungry, dangerous) onto the concept of ‘man’. The
domain of information about man is understood in terms of the domain of
information concerning ‘wolf’. To expand upon this basic idea, Lakoff and

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Johnson have delineated thousands of linguistic metaphors that we use to

understand information. They defined ‘conceptual metaphors’ as those lin-
guistic connections that have become so useful and common, that they are
now understood as literal language. Such metaphors as ‘time is money’ is
integrated into the American culture to the point that we understand time
in terms of money and conceptualize time as being ‘spent’, ‘saved’, or
‘wasted’. Basic conceptual or conventional metaphors structure our every-
day thinking. We interpret these metaphors literally as a part of speech. For
example, ‘argument is war’ formulates how we think about argument. We
‘defend’, ‘strategize’, ‘attack’, and ‘defeat’ arguments. Conceptual
metaphors shape the realities that we live by shaping our understanding of
basic concepts that we attempt to verbalize.
A primary characteristic metaphor involves how novel they are. The
range from literal or ‘conventional’ metaphors to the more novel and figu-
rative metaphors is called the metaphor-content continuum: verbal
metaphors such as ‘books are fresh fruit’ are considered more figurative
than ‘his time was well-spent’. Time being understood in terms of money
has become embedded as literal language in American culture; and thus, is
interpreted as literal language. The greatest bone of contention is what con-
stitutes the literal end of this metaphor-content continuum. Most theorists
agree that fresh and novel verbal metaphors can eventually evolve within
culture and move from the novel end of this continuum to the literal, as cul-
tural accommodation reduces novelty to literality.
While there has been extensive research on verbal metaphors, few have
focused on the visual counterparts. Visual metaphors impact on our under-
standing as linguistic metaphors have been demonstrated. Charles
Forceville (Forceville 1996) analysed pictorial metaphors in advertising and
focused on figurative, static images. His comparison reveals the visual sim-
ilarities to the linguistic non-arbitrary metaphor. ‘Mapping’ is employed in
the presentation of visual metaphors. One system of attributes maps onto
another to provide a new relationship of meaning. This is not a one-to-one
mapping. Some attributes are mapped and some are lost. This selective
mapping directly relates to the data-visualization process.
Geographic maps are good examples of how literal (conventional)
visual metaphors have developed into coherent and consistent system.
Here I contend that modern maps are conventional metaphors (in the
Lakoffian sense). Their novel origins have been lost over time (due to famil-
iarity). The histories of map-making before the 1960s shows a cultural bias
of Western European thinking (Bagrow and Skelton 1964). The projection
systems, lines on maps, and scales can be traced back to a disciple of
Aristotle and Greek mathematics. We literally interpret such conventions
today, though their origins reveal one set of visual metaphors to represent
maps. Indigenous peoples navigated land and sea with competency and
accuracy; but they used a different variety of materials and visual idioms.
Early cartographers’ criticisms ‘that these savages couldn’t draw in per-
spective’ are unfounded. For example, the Marshall Islanders designed
intricate patterns from palm fibre and shells to represent wave crests, navi-

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gation sites, and the mariner’s direction. These accurate and useful maps
provided alternative visual metaphors for navigating land and water.
Likewise, the Aztec and Mayan maps were accurate though they employed
different projections and icons. Cortez conquered the great Aztec civiliza-
tion using their indigenous maps painted on cloth. Afterwards, the invaders
systematically destroyed these early meso-American maps and replaced
them with Spanish Western European maps. Map-making has primarily
been dominated by Western European thinking. We can locate a variety of
visual methods that enabled different groups of people to navigate their
terrain, find locations in the land they explored, and mark there territories
with different measuring devices. In Guns, Germs, and Steel Diamond
argues that indigenous peoples are as intelligent as white people with lots
of technology though there are differences in the way of describing the
world and the motivations of the cultures. Today’s methods for spatially
quantifying information have roots in civilizations that are not more intelli-
gent, but more dominant.
Postcolonial historical perspectives of ancient map-making unfairly crit-
icize early American Indians and Pacific Islanders that these savages ‘could-
n’t draw in perspective’. After surveying ancient maps, we see a variety of
visual methods that enabled indigenous people to mark terrain using alter-
native metaphors. The difference between primitive approaches and
modern maps is in the coherency of the system and the motivations of the
culture, not the superiority of the visual models and metaphors. Navigating
the highways of life would involve very different visual icons, projections,
and embodied experiences if Aboriginal primitive culture had colonized the
world instead of Europeans.
Contemporary astronomy and astrophysical maps of the universe fit
into the evolution of cartography. These are maps wherein we are continu-
ing to use translations that are consistent within our cultural bias. The
weight of science and technology behind these images affect the audience’s
interpretation. Little attention is given to the assumptions that are hidden
behind the concept network of beliefs, the inadequacies of technologies,
perspective projection, incomplete scientific models, errors in instruments,
and limitations of computer-graphics devices. In the humanities and arts,
we recognize that scientific narratives are positioned within the cultural,
militaristic and political domains from which they evolve. When we take
these metaphoric relationships too seriously, we undermine our creative
thinking and our realities become calcified within consistent metaphoric
myths. I contend that the process of data-visualization is ‘metaphorical in
nature’ and that through cultural accommodation, our realities are being
created.
In conclusion, data-visualizations have provided beautiful images and
narratives. It is a magical to sit in a museum and experience virtual voyages
through stars and galaxies. But in the interest of metaphor theory and post-
colonial discourse, we must recognize that these data-visualizations are
culturally contingent and that there may be alternative ways of viewing the
universe. Data-mapping cannot be an arbitrary process; however, the cre-

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ativity is in the awareness that there are alternatives that will work.
‘Thinking out of the box’ is itself a metaphor that describes how creativity
requires new perspectives.

References
Bagrow, L. and Skelton, R.A. (1964), History of Cartography, Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press.
Diamond, J. (1997), Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, New York:
W.W. Norton and Company.
Forceville, C. (1996), Pictorial Metaphor in Advertising, London: Routledge.
Lakoff, G. and Johnson, M. (1980), Metaphors We Live By, Chicago: University of
Chicago Press.

Suggested Citation
Cox, D.J.(2004), ‘The Art and Science of Visualization: Metaphorical Maps and
Cultural Models’, Technoetic Arts 2: 2, pp. 71–79, doi: 10.1386/tear.2.2.71/0

Contributor Details
Donna J. Cox is a recognized pioneer in computer art and scientific visualization.
Since 1985, she has been a professor in the School of Art and Design and research
artist/scientist at the National Centre for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA).
Her collaborative works have been featured in art and science museums, PBS tele-
vision productions, planetaria, and IMAX theatres around the world, and she has
authored many papers on scientific visualization, critical theory, and information
design. Contact: NCSA, 605 East Springfield,,Champaign, IL, 61820, USA
E-mail: cox@ncsa.uiuc.edu

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