Visualizing urban and regional worlds: power, politics, and practices

Abstract

Visualizing urban and regional worlds: power, politics, and practices In this series of papers, presented as a theme issue of the journal Environment and Planning A, visualization has been used to explore a huge range of subjects. These range from trying to make clearer the powers that shape the urban landscape of the United States (Arribas-Bel and Gerritse, 2015) and further afield (Cattoor, 2015; Charlton et al, 2015; Swords and Jeffries, 2015), through to a better understanding of the geographies of wealth and power worldwide (Graham and De Sabbata, 2015; Hennemann et al, 2015), to rethinking old ways of mapping the flow of water (Hautdidier, 2015).So, how might all these issues be summed up in a conclusion? One answer is, of course, to draw yet more images: in this case images ranging from the world to local scale, and combining topography with hydrology in a very simple but hopefully useful way to try to sum up how we are beginning to see better that which until now we have only imagined and tried to describe to others in words. Visualization is about making visible what you imagine and even what you barely imagine but which is there in the data just waiting to be revealed.Images are only images-but they linger in the mind and shape our thoughts in ways that are more obscure to unravel than arguments put in text. With text at least you know what is there and what is not said. With images you do not know which fraction of the impression each viewer chooses or is coerced into seeing. If two of us look at an image we can each come away from viewing, say, new pictures of the world with very different impressions from each other. This is no bad thing. It reduces the power of those who draw the visualizations. The visualizers can, of course, manipulate images and try to steer the graphicreader's interpretation in a particular direction, but they cannot know (as well as you know when putting an argument over in words) whether it is in one particular direction or towards some other angle or thought which each image might cause minds to wander towards and wonder about.Take a new map of the world, one never seen before (figure 1). You are seeing this map for the first time. There is almost no way in which you could have seen it before, unless you had read the published thesis of the geographer who first drew the map (Hennig, 2013a), and even then this images differs from the prototype shown there. This map of the world shrinks the oceans down to take up hardly any space at all, leaving plenty of room for the land (Hennig, 2013b). It then reprojects the land so that area is proportional to population and drapes over that new projection an image of the elevation of the land so it is possible to see how many people live at each altitude and where, including how many live on land that is less than 50 m above sea level (highlighted in blue):New images can help to concentrate attention. Eastern China, Bangladesh, and parts of western India, much of the Mekong Delta, the Nile Delta, northwest Europe, the east and south co...

Visualizing urban and regional worlds: power, politics, and practices

“…It is through conceptual innovation that mapping has been refreshed in recent years and it is here social scientists can make the most significant impact. The cartograms in Dorling andHennig's concluding commentary (2015, page 1346) prompt not only new ways of seeing the world, but new ways of considering its form and content as well.…”

Knowing your audience: the contingency of landscape design interpretations

“…Furthermore, planning and design visualizations are 'being produced with new techniques and by new actors, within increasingly complex scopic regimes ' (Swords andLiu 2015, 1235). As a result, 'with images you do not know which fraction of the impression each viewer chooses or is coerced into seeing' (Dorling andHennig 2015, 1346). Several urban design scholars have engaged with (social) semiotic theory to study the role of such images in processes of place-making (Biddulph 2014), historical significance (Van Assche et al 2012), the power of planning imagery and cartography to influence planning decisions (Pojani and Stead 2016), and even the creation of iconic projects in the building industry (Sternberg 1996).…”

More than meets the eye : a critical semiotic analysis of landscape design visualizations

“…Furthermore, planning and design visualizations are 'being produced with new techniques and by new actors, within increasingly complex scopic regimes' (Swords & Liu 2015: 1235. As a result, 'with images you do not know which fraction of the impression each viewer chooses or is coerced into seeing' (Dorling & Hennig 2015: 1346. Several urban design scholars have engaged with (social) semiotic theory to study the role of such images in processes of place-making (Biddulph 2014), historical significance (van Assche et al 2012), the power of planning imagery and cartography to influence planning decisions (Pojani & Stead 2016), and even the creation of iconic projects in the building industry (Sternberg 1996).…”

“…Actors and institutions use different means of visual expressions, and thus different levels of validity, readability and interactivity, to make a 'claim to truth' and solidify their knowledge, interests, and preferences during a design process (Crampton 2001;Dorling & Hennig 2015). Such truth claims are made by attempting to influence the 'habits' or discursive networks through which audiences interpret design representations.…”