Abstract-While a number of information visualization software frameworks exist, creating new visualizations, especially those that involve novel visualization metaphors, interaction techniques, data analysis strategies, and specialized rendering algorithms, is still often a difficult process. To facilitate the creation of novel visualizations we present a new software framework, behaviorism, which provides a wide range of flexibility when working with dynamic information on visual, temporal, and ontological levels, but at the same time providing appropriate abstractions which allow developers to create prototypes quickly which can then easily be turned into robust systems. The core of the framework is a set of three interconnected graphs, each with associated operators: a scene graph for high-performance 3D rendering, a data graph for different layers of semantically-linked heterogeneous data, and a timing graph for sophisticated control of scheduling, interaction, and animation. In particular, the timing graph provides a unified system to add behaviors to both data and visual elements, as well as to the behaviors themselves. To evaluate the framework we look briefly at three different projects all of which required novel visualizations in different domains, and all of which worked with dynamic data in different ways: an interactive ecological simulation, an information art installation, and an information visualization technique.
Conceived as an installation on the topic of the archive and memory, Pockets Full of Memories was exhibited on the main floor of the Centre Pompidou National Museum of Modern Art, Paris from 10 April to 3 September 2001. During this time, approximately 20,000 visitors came to view the installation and contributed over 3300 objects in their possession, digitally scanning and describing them. This information was stored in a database and organized by the Kohonen Self-Organizing Map algorithm [http://www.cis.hut.fi/teuvo/] that positioned objects of similar descriptions near each other in a two-dimensional map. The map of objects was projected in the gallery space and was also accessible online at [www.pocketsfullofmemories.com] where individuals in the gallery and at home could review the objects and add comments and stories to any of them.
This paper presents a real-time, interactive fluid simulation and vector visualization technique that can be incorporated in media arts projects. These techniques-referred to collectively as the Fluid Automata system-have been adapted for various configurations, including mobile applications, interactive 2D and 3D projections, and multi-touch tables, and have been presented in a number of different environments-both academic and artistic-including galleries, conferences, and a virtual reality research lab. We describe specific details about the fluid simulation component, which, by changing a small number of parameters, allows users to quickly generate a vast number of "fluid profiles" and thus to explore a wide range of aesthetic possibilities that are easy to incorporate into media arts projects. In particular, we present this fluid simulation (and accompanying visual representation) as an example of how media artists can create novel versions of existing visualization techniques in order to emphasize variability, experimentation, and interactivity.
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