May 2012 - Infovis - infovis.org

Immediate Postdoc position in visual analytics
by David S. Ebert 12 Oct '12

12 Oct '12

Visual Analytics Postdoc Position Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN The Visual analytics for Command, Control, and Interoperability Environments (VACCINE) Center at Purdue University invites applications for a postdoctoral researcher in visual analytics across a wide spectrum of application areas. The successful candidate will perform research in visual analytics projects, lead research activities in the group, and interface with renowned academic research groups in visual analytics around the world. VACCINE is working closely with collaborators including health and public safety departments, medical doctors, US Coast Guard, TSA, computational scientists, researchers in science, engineering, and economics. The ideal candidate has a Ph.D. with strong research background in visual analytics, geospatial and temporal analysis, statistics, visualization, cognitive science, human computer interaction, computer graphics or a closely related field. Both beginning and senior postdoctoral candidates are encouraged to apply. Excellent oral and written communication skills are mandatory. Starting date is from late Spring 2012. Applications including a CV and a research statement should be sent to Prof. Dr. David Ebert (ebertd(a)purdue.edu <mailto:ebertd@purdeu.edu> ). Sincerely, David ----- - Dr. David S. Ebert, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering - - Silicon Valley Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering - - Purdue University; 465 Northwestern Ave., West Lafayette, IN 47907 - - Director, Visual Analytics for Command, Control, and Interoperability - - Environments (VACCINE), DHS CCI Center of Excellence - - http://www.VisualAnalytics-CCI.org - - Director, Purdue Visualization and Analytics Center, www.purvac.org - - ebertd(a)purdue.edu http://www.ece.purdue.edu/~ebertd - -------------------------------------------------------------------------

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LEONARDO SCHOLARSHIP FOR MEDIA ART HISTORIES
by Image Science 30 May '12

30 May '12

=> please excuse cross-postings <= LEONARDO SCHOLARSHIP FOR MEDIA ART HISTORIES => First International Master of MediaArtHistories (low-residency, English language, international faculty) In affiliation with a driving force leading the field, Leonardo/ISAST, The Center for Image Science is pleased to announce their continued cooperation with a half-tuition scholarship for the Master of Arts (MA) course in MediaArtHistories, for the start in November 2012. => LEONARDO SCHOLARSHIP FOR MEDIA ART HISTORIES The scholarship is planned to answer the critical challenges of the 21st century, which require mobilization and cross-fertilization among the domains of art, science and technology by supporting the studies of a new researcher or artist. The postgraduate program MediaArtHistories conveys the most important developments of contemporary art through a network of renowned international theorists, artists and curators like: Erkki HUHTAMO, Lev MANOVICH Christiane PAUL, Roger MALINA Jens HAUSER, Jeffrey SHAW, Jussi PARIKKA Gerfried STOCKER, Christa SOMMERER & Laurent MIGNONNEAU, Sean CUBITT, Paul SERMON, Oliver GRAU, Edward SHANKEN, KNOWBOTIC RESEARCH, Frieder NAKE, Machiko KUSAHARA, Nat MULLER, Gunalan NADARAJAN, Monika FLEISCHMANN, Margit ROSEN, Andreas LANGE, Christopher SALTER, Darko FRITZ, Irina ARISTARKHOVA, and others. Historical derivations that go far back into art and media history are tied in intriguing ways to digital art. Key approaches and methods from Image Science, Media Archaeology and the History of Science & Technology will be discussed. Media Art History offers a basis for understanding evolutionary history of audiovisual media, from the Laterna Magica to the Panorama, Phantasmagoria, Film, and the Virtual Art of recent decades. Using online databases and other modern aids, knowledge of computer animation, net art, interactive, telematic and genetic art as well as the most recent reflections on nano art, CAVE installations, augmented reality and wearables are introduced. Artists and programmers give new insights into the latest software and interface developments. => DANUBE UNIVERSITY KREMS - located in the UNESCO world heritage Wachau, 70km from Vienna, is the only public university in Europe specializing in advanced continuing education by offering low-residency degree programs for working professionals and life long learners. The Center in Monastery Goettweig, where most MediaArtHistories courses take place, is housed in a 14th century building, remodeled to fit the needs of modern research in singular surroundings. => STUDENTS - The course is held in English and is low-residency with rolling admissions. Acceptance into the program requires a previous degree at or above the Bachelors level, or the equivalent through relevant work experience. International students come from countries like Canada, Hong Kong, Ukraine, USA, Japan, Brazil, Iceland, Russia, Egypt, Germany, Austria & Korea and Mexico. Testimonials: http://www.donau-uni.ac.at/de/studium/medienkunstgeschichte/10365/index.php => LEONARDO/ISAST - Leonardo creates opportunities for the powerful exchange of ideas between practitioners in art, science and technology. Through publications, initiatives and public forums, Leonardo/ISAST facilitates cross-disciplinary research in these fields, seeking to catalyze fruitful solutions for the challenges of the 21st century. Application documents (digital): application form, a letter of motivation, copies of your previous degree(s), copy of your passport and a Europass CV Application Deadline: July 31, 2012 Further Information: www.donau-uni.ac.at/mah-scholar www.donau-uni.ac.at/mah www.leonardo.info www.virtualart.at www.mediaarthistories.org Contact: Wendy Coones Center for Image Science Danube University Krems Dr.-Karl-Dorrek-Str. 30, A-3500 Krems Tel: +43(0)2732 893-2543 Wendy.coones(a)donau-uni.ac.at www.donau-uni.ac.at/cis

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Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biological Data Visualization
by Goerg, Carsten 29 May '12

29 May '12

Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biological Data Visualization The Computational Bioscience Program at the University of Colorado School of Medicine invites applications for an NLM (NIH) funded post-doctoral fellowship. The successful candidate will conduct interdisciplinary research in biological data visualization and work closely with Dr. Carsten Görg and other faculty and researchers in the Computational Bioscience Program. A Ph.D. degree in Computer Science, Computational Biology, or a related discipline, and being a U.S. Citizen or Permanent Resident are minimal requirements. The ideal candidate would also have a background in information visualization or visual analytics, and experience in visualizing and analyzing structured data, such as networks, as well as unstructured data, such as textual documents. Programming skills in Java, web-based graphics development, and domain knowledge in biology are beneficial. The candidate will have the opportunity to develop his/her research, publication, and presentation skills under mentorship from Dr. Görg. Start date: Fall 2012, earliest start date is August 1. The initial appointment will be for a one-year period, with the possibility of a yearly extension to up to three years based upon performance. Qualifications: Candidates must have a Ph.D. degree in Computer Science, Computational Biology, or a related discipline, and be U.S. Citizens or Permanent Residents. Salary & Benefits: Successful candidates will be offered the NRSA specified stipend (based on years of experience), medical insurance, $2000 per year in travel support and $6500 per year in additional research-related expenses. To apply: Send a cover letter, curriculum vitae, and a statement of research interests to Liz.Pruett(a)ucdenver.edu; also arrange for three letters of recommendation to be sent to the same email address. Contact Carsten.Goerg(a)ucdenver.edu for questions about the position or the program. About the Computational Bioscience Program The Computational Bioscience Program is home to twelve core faculty working in the areas of genomics, visualization, text mining, knowledge representation, network analysis, molecular evolution, phylogenetics, statistical methods, microarray, biomedical ontology, and other areas. The School of Medicine is home to a broad array of outstanding research and instrumentation, including extensive DNA sequencing and microarray facilities. We are housed on the first all-new medical campus of the 21st century, close to both the urban amenities of Denver and the beautiful Rocky Mountains. For more information, please consult http://compbio.ucdenver.edu UC Denver is an equal opportunity employer. Women and minorities are especially encouraged to apply.

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PhD position in machine learning, data analysis and visualization (Aalto University, Finland)
by Peltonen Jaakko 28 May '12

28 May '12

PhD position in machine learning, data analysis and visualization Aalto University School of Science invites applications for a doctoral student / research assistant position for a fixed term (4 years: initial contract for 1 year, extension to the remaining 3 years decided at the end of the year). Start date: 1 September 2012 (negotiable) Application deadline: 22 June 2012 Visualization and exploratory analysis are crucial in analysis of new phenomena where strong hypotheses are not yet available. You will develop advanced machine learning methods for exploratory analysis, including methods for nonlinear dimensionality reduction, visualization, and exploratory data analysis with multiple data sources. The methods will involve novel probabilistic models for the structure and dependencies between multiple data sets. The methods will be used in bioinformatics, neuroinformatics, analysis of structured data like graphs, proactive information retrieval, and other domains. We have developed novel frameworks for visualization from an information retrieval perspective, and for multitask learning in asymmetric scenarios; your work will extend these research lines. Research Site: The position is at the Department of Information and Computer Science, Aalto University School of Science. The focus of the department's research and teaching activity is on advanced computational methods for modelling, analysing, and solving complex tasks in technology and science. The research aims at the development of fundamental computer science methods for the analysis of large and high-dimensional data sets, and for the modelling and design of complex software, networking and other computational systems. The department hosts three national Centres of Excellence: the Centre of Excellence in Computational Inference Research (COIN) and parts of the Centres of Excellence in Algorithmic Data Analysis Research and Molecular Systems Immunology and Physiology Research.The department also contributes to the Helsinki Institute for Information Technology HIIT and the Helsinki node of the EIT ICT Labs. The department is a member of Informatics Europe, the association of European computer science departments. The department was ranked among the top two departments of Aalto University in the Research Assessment Exercise 2009. The position is located in the Statistical Machine Learning and Bioinformatics research group at the Department. The group is part of Helsinki Institute for Information Technology HIIT in Aalto University. The group is a member of the new Finnish Centre of Excellence in Computational Inference Research (COIN), and is also a member in the EU PASCAL2 network of excellence. The work will be supervised by academy research fellow Jaakko Peltonen. The work involves collaboration with Finnish researchers including members of the Statistical Machine Learning and Bioinformatics research group at Aalto University led by Prof. Samuel Kaski, and international researchers from the UK, Belgium, and the USA. The research site is located on the Aalto University campus in Otaniemi, a short bus ride away from the centre of Finland's capital Helsinki. Helsinki and the capital area are a great place to live, with numerous local attractions and events, scenic landscapes of small forests, islands and urban areas, a high standard of living, and excellent travel connections. Helsinki is the World Design Capital in 2012. Department website: http://ics.aalto.fi/en/ HIIT website: http://www.hiit.fi/ Research group website: http://research.ics.aalto.fi/mi/ Principal investigator website: http://users.ics.aalto.fi/jtpelto/ Required and Desired Qualities of the Applicant: A successful applicant must have a MSc degree in computer science, electrical engineering, mathematics, physics, or a related field. It is also possible to start as a research assistant working on one's Master's thesis. - A strong mathematical background and an interest in probabilistic modeling and/or machine learning are necessary. - An interest in some of the following topics is essential: exploratory data analysis, dimensionality reduction, manifold learning, visualization, and multi-task learning. Experience in these topics is an advantage. - A strong study record and strong track record in research are advantages. - Good programming skills in languages such as C/C++/Matlab/R/Python and good written and spoken communication skills are desired. Contract Details: The salary will be determined based on the Aalto University salary system (2200-3200 euro per month before tax for a doctoral student depending on qualifications and performance). Funding is expected to be available for 4 years: the initial appointment will be for one year with extension to the remaining 3 years decided at the end of the year. Application Procedure: The application deadline is 22 June 2012. The application materials must include a curriculum vitae, a copy of study records, contact details of at least two references, and any other materials deemed relevant. Applications must be submitted to the Registry of Aalto University, no later than the deadline. Applications must be submitted preferably by email to kirjaamo(a)aalto.fi or alternatively by physical mail to The Registry of Aalto University, Aalto University, P.O.Box 11000, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland (street address Otakaari 1, Espoo). Application materials will not be returned. Candidates may be asked for an interview at Aalto University or via phone or Skype. For additional information, please contact academy research fellow Jaakko Peltonen or HR Coordinator Stefan Ehrstedt. E-mail: firstname.lastname(a)aalto.fi See this ad online: http://users.ics.aalto.fi/jtpelto/openposition.shtml

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Call for book chapter proposals: Force-Based Data Visualization and Visual Analytics (ForceVA12)
by whua5569＠gmail.com 25 May '12

25 May '12

Apologies for Cross Posting CALL FOR CHAPTER PROPOSALS Proposal Submission Deadline: June 30, 2012 Force-Based Data Visualization and Visual Analytics A book edited by Dr. Maolin Huang and Dr. Weidong Huang University of Technology, Sydney, Australia To be published by IGI Global: http://bit.ly/IPelWH http://www.wikicfp.com/cfp/servlet/event.showcfp?eventid=23351&copyownerid=… Introduction Force-based methods have been one of the most widely used techniques for visualizing and analysing networks. Due to rapid advances in storage hardware and network technologies, network data have become increasingly large and complex. As a result, making sense of them has been a challenging issue. In response to this challenge, force-directed methods have undergone further developments in both research and application in recent years. In one direction, many classic force-directed algorithms have been fine-tuned and extended to draw graphs nicely. In another, the idea of forces has been used to meet specific visual requirements and application needs, such as edge bundling. Therefore, there exists a need for an edited collection to reflect these latest trends and developments in these directions. Objective of the Book This book will aim to provide an overview of the current state of the art research on force-based and force-related data visualization and visual analytics. It addresses the issues related to design, develop, evaluation and application of force-based algorithms and force-related visualization techniques for data visualization and visual analytics. This book is an edited volume whose contributors include well-established experts and active researchers in this area worldwide. Target Audience The target audience of this book will be composed of professionals and researchers working in the field of data analysis and visualization in various disciplines. Advanced-level students in science and engineering will also find this book useful as a secondary text or reference. Recommended topics include, but are not limited to, the following: Part I: Introduction and background Current status and future challenges of data visualization Current status and future challenges of visual analytics Survey of force-based graph drawing algorithms and their applications Survey of force-related visualization techniques and their applications Part II: algorithms, techniques and applications Theoretic and behavior investigations of force-based algorithms Force-based algorithms for graph drawing Force-based techniques for information visualization Domain specific graph drawing algorithms and their applications Domain specific force-based techniques and their applications Evaluations and case studies of force-based algorithms and techniques Submission Procedure Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit on or before June 30, 2012, a 2-3 page chapter proposal clearly explaining the mission and concerns of his or her proposed chapter. Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by July 15, 2012 about the status of their proposals and sent chapter guidelines. Full chapters are expected to be submitted by September 30, 2012. All submitted chapters will be peer-reviewed. Contributors may also be requested to serve as reviewers for this project. Publisher This book is scheduled to be published by IGI Global (formerly Idea Group Inc.), publisher of the “Information Science Reference” (formerly Idea Group Reference), “Medical Information Science Reference,” “Business Science Reference,” and “Engineering Science Reference” imprints. For additional information regarding the publisher, please visit www.igi-global.com. This publication is anticipated to be released in 2013. Important Dates June 30, 2012: Proposal Submission Deadline July 15, 2012: Notification of Acceptance September 30, 2012: Full Chapter Submission October 15, 2012: Review Results Returned November 1, 2012: Final Chapter Submission Inquiries and submissions can be forwarded electronically (Word document) or by mail to: Dr. Weidong Huang E-mail: whua5569(a)gmail.com * * * * * *

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Call for VisWeek 2012 Panels, Tutorials, and Workshops
by Meghan Haley 24 May '12

24 May '12

***Call for VisWeek 2012 Panels, Tutorials, and Workshops*** With apologies for cross-posting We solicit panel, tutorial, and workshop proposals for VisWeek 2012. All three tracks serve distinct purposes and are intended to cover a wide selection of topics related to VisWeek, including but not limited to • Visual Data Mining • Perception in Visualization • Design Aspects of Visualization • High Dimensional Visualization • Large Data Visualization • GPGPU Methods in Visualization • Graphics Programming Tools (GPUs, toolkits, systems, etc.) • Usability Testing and Evaluation • Mathematics and Statistics, PDEs • Principles and Foundations of Visualization • Relevant application areas (Climate, Chemistry, Hydrology, CFD, Medicine, Genomics/ Proteomics, Molecular Biology, etc.) We especially welcome late-breaking and current topics, since the nature of panels, tutorials, and workshops is more conducive to emerging and not-yet-established areas. If you want to contribute a short, exciting event to VisWeek, but aren’t sure where to send it, this is the call for you! To obtain specific information about the requirements for each track, please visit http://visweek.org/ . We encourage potential contributors to submit one single proposal to the track which they believe is best suited. If a proposal is especially strong but reviewers deem it better suited for a different track, the committees will suggest that to the submitters. **Panels** VisWeek panels should address important and/or controversial applications and issues in scientific and information visualization and visual analytics. In particular, we invite topics in connection with application fields. Panelists should be experts in their fields who can discuss the challenges of visualization, and engage the audience and fellow panel members in a stimulating, interactive debate. Panel proposals should describe the topic to be addressed and identify the prospective panelists. Panels are scheduled for the duration of a paper session; proposals should target 75 minutes total duration, including question and discussion periods. The deadline for panels is June 22nd, 2012. Panel proposals should describe the topic to be addressed and identify the prospective panelists. Each panelist should include a position statement on the topic and a short biography, the total of which should be limited to 500 words for each panelist, up to a maximum of four pages for the whole panel. Panels are scheduled for the duration of an entire paper session; panel proposals should thus be targeting one hour and 15 minute total duration, including question and discussion periods. Panel organizers should also submit a short description of the panel format and schedule (max. 1 page). This should be in a separate document from the proposal itself, and should describe the order of topics to be discussed, time to be spent on panelist presentations, and mechanisms for encouraging audience participation. Based on audience feedback, we strongly recommend limiting the duration of panelist presentation in order to allow ample time for intrapanel discussion and discussions between the panel and the audience. Demonstrations and innovative formats for the panels are encouraged. Panel Chairs: Hamish Carr, University of Leeds Bongshin Lee, Microsoft Research Margaret Varga, Oxford University Contact: panels(a)visweek.org **Tutorials** VisWeek tutorials should provide background on new or established tools and application domains necessary for research in data and information visualization and visual analytics. We are soliciting half-day and full-day tutorial proposals. We welcome course proposals that introduce emerging technologies to the visualization community, as well as proposals on more traditional topics. In a nutshell, tutorials should teach attendees something new that is useful, cool or otherwise noteworthy. Attendees’ backgrounds will vary widely, and tutorials should take this into account. The deadline for tutorial proposals is June 22nd, 2012. Tutorial proposals should include: • The duration (1/2 day or full day) • The level of the tutorial (beginning, intermediate, or advanced) • An abstract of the tutorial topic • A description of the tutorial's organization including time allocation and outline for major course topics (500 word minimum) • The background and contact information for each instructor. Proposals should be submitted by email to tutorials(a)visweek.org. Any questions concerning submission, format, and content should be sent to the same address. Tutorial Chairs: Petra Isenberg, INRIA Gordon Kindlmann, University of Chicago Robert Kosara, University of North Carolina, Charlotte Contact: tutorials(a)visweek.org **Workshops** VisWeek workshops should provide an informal setting for participants to discuss advanced technical topics in visualization, involve experts in the field, disseminate work in progress, and promote new ideas. In contrast with tutorials, the presenters and audience for workshops should interact bidirectionally: the audience is expected to engage and participate in determining research questions, directions and ideas. We are soliciting half-day and full-day proposals. The deadline for workshop proposals is June 22nd, 2012. Proposals should include: • title • contact details of the organizers • brief description of organizers' background, related publications and research • goals, technical scope, the mission, or proposed focus • planned activities • length (full or half day) • statement of the organization and development of the list of participants (intended size, selection procedure) • organization of facilities (room setup as a round table, lecture theater, or in a panel format) • intended result and impact of the workshop results. The proposal should not exceed 4 pages, and should be submitted via email directly to the chairs at workshops(a)visweek.org. Workshops will be evaluated according to the following criteria: • potential for inspiring people, being influential, and opening new lines of research • ability to attract people and make them excited about it • appropriateness with visweek topics • qualification of the organizers • feasibility of the proposed plan (financial, time plan, etc.) • coherence of the proposed topic In addition the workshop chairs will try to balance the proposed topics in order to have an heterogeneous program. Workshop Chairs: Carlos Scheidegger, AT&T Labs-Research Chris Collins, University of Ontario Institute of Technology Danyel Fisher, Microsoft Research Tobias Schreck, Universität Konstanz Contact: workshops(a)visweek.org

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2nd CFP: ACM RecSys 2012 Workshop on Interfaces for Recommender Systems (InterfaceRS'12)
by Rong Hu 23 May '12

23 May '12

2nd CALL FOR PAPERS: ACM RECSYS WORKSHOP ON INTERFACES FOR RECOMMENDER SYSTEMS (InterfaceRS'12) Held in conjunction with RecSys 2012 13th September, Dublin, Ireland InterfaceRS’12: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/~csc284/InterfaceRS/index.html RecSys'12: http://recsys.acm.org/2012/ Submission deadline: 8 June 2011. ======================================================= As a half-day workshop, InterfaceRS desires to bring together researchers and practitioners around the topics of designing and evaluating novel intelligent interfaces for recommender systems in order to: (1) share research and techniques, including new design technologies and evaluation methodologies (2) identify next key challenges in the area, and (3) identify emerging topics. This workshop aims at creating an interdisciplinary community with a focus on the interface design issues for recommender systems and promoting the collaboration opportunities between researchers and practitioners. As an interactive intelligent system, recommender systems are developed to give recommendations which match users' preferences. Since the emergence of recommender systems, a large majority of research focuses on objective accuracy criteria and less attention has been paid to how users interact with the system and the efficacy of interface designs from users' perspective. Well-designed user interfaces have the capability of enhancing user interaction experience and overall satisfaction. For example, explanation interfaces can increase user confidence in their decision choices and inspire user trust and loyalty to the used system. Nowadays, a variety of novel recommendation technologies have been developed to meet different needs (e.g., group and social recommenders). Recommender systems have also extended to new application platforms (e.g., mobile devices). In addition, heterogeneous information resources have been incorporated into recommender systems (e.g., psychological factors, social media). This brings forward new challenges in designing effective and efficient interfaces for these new recommender applications. Topics of interests include, but are not limited to: – Explanation interfaces – Context-aware interfaces – Social interfaces – Ubiquitous and mobile interfaces – Affective Interfaces – Spoken and natural language interfaces – Collaborative multi-user interfaces – Conversational interfaces – Adaptive interfaces – Argumentation and persuasion interfaces – Example- and demonstration-based interfaces – New approaches to designing interfaces for recommender systems – Case studies – Empirical studies and evaluations of new interfaces – Evaluation methods and metrics (e.g., evaluation questionnaire design) – User studies – Human factors (e.g., privacy, security, trust, confidence, transparency) – Comparative studies across domains – Design guidelines ====================== Submissions ====================== We invite the submission of papers reporting original research, studies, advances, experiences, or work in progress in this area. Three submission types are accepted: • Full technical papers (8 pages), presenting technical, scientific, and/or applicative findings, contribute to the knowledge and understanding of problems of interest, and/or present methodological advancements. • Short technical papers (4 pages), presenting work in progress or of shorter, specific scope. • Short demo papers (4 pages), describing how the novel interface prototype is used to solve practically important problems. A supplemental informal description (1-2 pages) should be attached to the submission, describing what attendees will be able to see or do during your demo (e.g. screenshots), and itemize any equipment or facilities that you will bring for your system demonstration. An accompanying video is optional, but highly encouraged. Any submitted video should be at most three minutes long and 50MB in size. Each paper will be evaluated by at least three reviewers from the Program Committee. The papers will be evaluated for their originality, contribution significance, soundness, clarity, and overall quality. The interest of contributions will be assessed in terms of technical and scientific findings, contribution to the knowledge and understanding of the problem, methodological advancements, and/or applicative value. All submissions shall adhere to the standard ACM SIG proceedings format and be sent as a PDF file via EasyChair (http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=interfacers12) by June 8th, 2012. Note that at least one author of accepted papers needs to register and attend the workshop. ====================== Important Dates ====================== • Paper submission deadline: 8 June 2011. • Author notification: 22 June 2011. • Camera ready version due: 6 July 2011. ====================== Program Committee ====================== Li Chen, Hong Kong Baptist University, China Henrik Eneroth, Antrop, Sweden Alexander Felfernig, Graz University of Technology, Austria Franca Garzotto, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Helen Hastie, Heriot Watt University, UK Eelco Herder, L3S Research Center, Germany Alejandro Jaimes, Yahoo! Research, Spain Joseph Konstan, University of Minnesota, USA Jesse Vig, Palo Alto Research Center, USA Additional members to be announced. ====================== Organizers ====================== Nava Tintarev, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK. Rong Hu, EPFL, Switzerland. Pearl Pu, EPFL, Switzerland.

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Imagery in the 21st Century; Oliver Grau (Ed.)
by Image Science 21 May '12

21 May '12

IMAGERY IN THE 21st CENTURY by Oliver Grau, Editor; with Thomas Veigl The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2011 424 pp. illus. 132 b/w. Trade, $40 ISBN-10: 0262015722. With contributions by Sean CUBITT, Martin SCHULZ, Eduardo KAC, Thomas VEIGL, Stefan HEIDENREICH, Olaf BREIDBACH, Dolores & David STEINMAN, James ELKINS, Wendy CHUNG, Christa SOMMERER & Laurent MIGNONNEAU, Marie Luise ANGERER, Peter WEIBEL, Adrian CHEOK, Tim Otto ROTH, Harald KRÄMER, Lev MANOVICH, Martin WARNKE, Oliver GRAU and Martin KEMP Reviewed by Trebor Scholz, Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts (NY) scholzt(a)newschool.edu (Full hyperlinked version "New Literacies for a New Aesthetic?" by Trebor Scholz: http://tinyurl.com/dx5dwsb As a ten year-old, passing by the Forbidden City of the East German Head of State and his functionaries sparked my imagination. The walled complex, tucked away in a forested area near Berlin, was guarded by an armed division of the Stasi. Back then, you couldn't Google for images of this residential compound; Pinterest, Google Earth, and civilian drones were not around. And even if they were available, there was no grassroots way of mass-reproducing images or texts. Images invade our consciousness. They can bear witness when words are used up. They can mobilize, gratify and inform. They can be put to work as evidence, argument, accusation, and proof. Images can help us to make sense of our surroundings. We surrender to the onslaught of images; sometimes the anti-punctum: senseless, lackadaisically composed, and extraneous. But images also fail us: the desensitizing overabundance of visual material does not stop all the atrocities depicted. Visuality in the early decades of the 21st century is not merely about image manipulation software though, it is about entirely new attitudes toward visuality. In the early years of the 21st century, the collection of essays Imagery in the 21st Century, edited by Oliver Grau with Thomas Veigl sets out to understand what will constitute an image, and what are novel ways to generate, project, and distribute pictures. Imagery in the 21st Century resulted from a conference that Oliver Grau convened. It traverses the disciplinary divides between art history, anthropology, and cell biology, focusing on: the ecological and ethical dimensions of screen technologies (Sean Cubitt), a course on image practices in the university (James Elkins), machinima aesthetics (Thomas Veigl), medical illustration (Dolores and David Steinman), the obsession with source code (Wendy Hui Kyong Chun), novel cultural interfaces (Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau), the museum as Noah's Arc (Peter Weibel), and the Warburg Image Atlas for a digital age (Martin Warnke). At first, I asked myself, what holds the twenty chapters in this book together. What do all the puzzle pieces add up to? An analysis of contemporary imagery felt like an uncomfortably all-embracing ambition. John Berger, for example, focused on the way oil paintings primarily reflected on the status of those who commissioned the artwork. What are we talking about when we are thinking about contemporary visuality? The advent of infographics, games, CCTV, animated gifs, art generated by algorithms, histograms, 4D visualizations, or Instagram? Constructively, the authors reflect on imagery not merely through the lens of a specific device, genre, social practice, or social function, and it becomes clear that image literacy can no longer be the exclusive domain of art historians. But are we really, as the book suggests, amidst an image revolution? "The curse of the ‘perpetually new’ is perpetual," Bruce Sterling writes. Today, visual culture invades societies that are largely unprepared. We surrender. Appropriately, one important axis of discussion in Imagery in the 21st Century concerns the question of much-needed image literacies. The editors aspire to extract a crosscutting literacy that can catch the elusive phenomena of contemporary visuality. Grau calls for an image competency for our culture that is still largely dominated by writing. Do we speak the language of the image? Illiteracy, Grau suitably suggests, has largely been overcome in most countries but the inability to interpret images adequately, has not been sufficiently considered. With the proliferation of digitization, we are inundated with heaps of information. In this Age of Big Data, the ever growing pile of data becomes unknowable as David Weinberger and others have pointed out. There are ever more data but fewer theories to make sense of them. The world has become harder to know. Visualization, aggregation, curation and the filtering of data become core competencies not only for designers but also for journalists, scholars, artists, and scientists. There is no such thing as information overload, there's only filter failure, as Clay Shirky declared. This is also true when it comes to “abuses of the visual,” as James Elkins put it referring to compulsively created, senseless images. Oliver Grau and Thomas Veigl demand new forms of visualization to face this explosion of knowledge. For me, the visual should not merely connect us to the sciences, as Elkins suggests, but also to the political power of images. Think of the work of the British cultural critic Judith Williamson (e.g., Decoding Advertising), the artworks by Alfredo Jaar, Emily Jacir, Trevor Paglen or Alan Sekula. Or, take the recently published book Right To Look, in which Nicholas Mirzoeff argues that "visuality has been central to the legitimization of Western hegemony." Such discussion of global image power as political force is indispensable. In his chapter in Imagery in the 21st Century, “Visual Practices the University: A Report,” James Elkins suggests that today, learning mainly happens through images. Already in 1924, the German art historian and cultural theorist Aby Warburg used arrangements of images from distant times and places. In his Mnemosyne-Atlas he combines images to create meaning. In fact, Warburg's writing is hard to understand without comprehending his Atlas. Do images really push themselves in front of words, as Elkins claims? Have words hopelessly deteriorated? The editors argue along those lines: “It would appear that images have won the contest with words." (6) Indeed, long-form platforms like WordPress grow slower than short-form writing and image sharing through micro-blogging services. The image sharing board Pinterest grows at an explosive rate. An Instagram photos make sharing even faster than tweets. But thinking of the media representation of the Rwandan genocide in 1994 or the Kosovo War in 1999- images failed to make these atrocities vivid enough; they did not do very much. Susan Sontag concludes that narrative and contextual framing establish more meaning than images. But luckily learning in colleges and universities is still largely based on texts. Part of my responsibility as a professor is to bring students into the intimate, delicious sphere of reading. The visuality of Khan Academy’s hand-written lectures on videos is an interesting hybrid. But still, we largely discover the universe through words. The long sentence is worth defending against the click-click moments of the networked cacophony. Sean Cubitt's in his chapter “Current Screens” instructs us to consider specifically the ethical-ecological layer of discussions about screen technologies. Her emphasizes that our culture is highly material, especially when you consider the ecological footprint of the raw materials. LCD screens, for example, are poorly biodegradable and potentially significant water contaminants. Sean Cubitt demands that next steps cannot be achieved without respect for the poor and for the ecosphere. Cubitt's essay also reminded me of the fact that an avatar in the virtual world Second Life consumes as much electricity as a real life person in Brazil. The "immaterial" can't escape the burden, the solace, and social costs of the material world. In this discussion of visual culture, media art has a role to play. How can we rescue digital artworks from oblivion? Oliver Grau's warns of the total loss of our cultural memory of digital art of the past ten years. Most definitely, hardware and operating systems change and without explicit, thoughtful, and well-funded efforts, most works will indeed be lost. There is no one-fits-all preservation solution. Oliver Grau, who is also the author of Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion, provides impressive examples of indispensable media artworks like Jeffrey Shaw's T-Visionarium. Peter Weibel, in his chapter, states that a degree of democratization and personalization of technology has helped to empower users. We are all consumers and producers of visual culture. Art, too, is included in this democratization. Painters no longer have a monopoly on creating images ever since photography made it possible for everyone to take pictures. Artists have lost their monopoly on creativity. Museums, Weibel suggests, are floating crates. They are meant to store works in their bellies, just like Noah’s Ark. They are meant to assure that artworks do not perish. If we inquire how many works have been preserved during the last century, the estimates vary between 1% and 7% of the whole production of art. Museums have done a poor job, Weibel states. They have passed judgments with the guillotine of history–separated out the majority of art and rejected it. Today, when I return to the former East Germany, my GPS powered cellphone will not only lead my way, but it will also reveal all that was hidden back when I drove by Erich Honecker Secret City. Smartphones embed geographic location in the photos that I capture. While pressing my fingers into the hardcover of Imagery in the 21st Century, I can’t stop myself from asking why a publication that is so much about the liquidity of the frameless image, the shrinking shelf life of the jpg, a book that so heavily relies on hyperlinked references, is not published online. High quality images, animated gifs and videos could be included this way. An interactive, web-based publication, however, could have better served as an open educational resource, made the content available to far more people, very much supporting the kind of thinking that the publication encourages. This is not a shortcoming of the editors but it behoves all of us to find adequate and creative responses to the old business models of mechanical reproduction. I was thrilled to read Grau’s Imagery in the 21 Century and I will use it in my teaching. The book can be brought into productive conversation with Nicholas Mirzoeff's Right to See, David Weinberger's Too Big To Know, Cathy Davidson's Now You See It, and also Design Studies: A Reader, edited by my New School colleagues Hazel Clark and David Brody. Imagery in the 21 Century is a fabulous resource for the reflection on contemporary visuality.

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ACM TiiS special issue and XDATA submission deadline
by Remco Chang 18 May '12

18 May '12

Apologies for cross-listing Due to an unanticipated conflict between the submission deadlines for DARPA XDATA and the ACM TiiS special issue on Interactive Computational Visual Analytics, members of the community has brought to our attention the difficulty in submitting to the TiiS special issue on the previously announced date of May 31. If you are in such a situation and would like for more time, please send me an email (remco(a)cs.tufts.edu) to request for an extension for up to two weeks. When you do so, please include a preliminary abstract of your planned submission. Thank you for your interest and we look forward to your submissions! Sincerely, Remco Call for Papers Subject: ACM TiiS special issue on Interactive Computational Visual Analytics Special Issue of the ACM Transactions on Interactive Intelligent Systems on INTERACTIVE COMPUTATIONAL VISUAL ANALYTICS Main submission deadline: May 31st, 2012 http://tiis.acm.org/special-issues.html AIMS AND SCOPE Visual analytics is defined as "the science of analytical reasoning facilitated by visual interactive interfaces." Since its inception in 2006, the field has grown to encompass a wide array of topics relating to the theory, design, and development of interactive visual interfaces for the purposes of data exploration, data analysis, sense making, and decision making. While the scope of visual analytics is broad, one principle that has emerged over the years is the need for visual analytics systems to leverage computational methods in data mining, knowledge discovery, and machine learning for large-scale data analysis. In these systems, the human operator works alongside the computational processes in an integrated fashion - the computer can sift through large amounts of data and identify the relevant information, while the human interactively explores the reduced data space to discover trends and patterns and make informed decisions. The two components operate in coordination, allowing for a continuous and cooperative analytical loop. This special issue will publish papers that address how computational methods can be integrated into interactive visualization systems from a variety of perspectives. The dimensions listed below indicate the range of work that is relevant to the special issue. In case of doubt about the relevance of your topic, please contact the guest editors. TOPIC DIMENSIONS Models, Theory, and Methods for Interactive Computational Visual Analytics - Mathematical foundations of data transformations - Data management and knowledge representation - Integration of multiple or disparate simulation models - Interaction, analytical discourse, and sensemaking - Analytic provenance and quantification and storage of interactions - ... Real-World Applications Using Interactive Computational Visual Analytics - Large-scale (real-world scale) data - High-dimensional data - Real-time data - Streaming data - Geospatial data - ... Evaluation of Interactive Computational Visual Analytics - Empirical and observational studies - User studies with general implications - Novel evaluation techniques - ... SPECIAL ISSUE ASSOCIATE EDITORS - Remco Chang, Tufts University (contact: remco[at]cs[dot]tufts[dot]edu) - David Ebert, Purdue University - Daniel Keim, University of Konstanz IMPORTANT DATES - By May 31st, 2012: Submission of manuscripts - By September 13th, 2012: Notification about decisions on initial submissions - By December 12th, 2012: Submission of revised manuscripts - By February 10th, 2013: Notification about decisions on revised manuscripts - By March 12th, 2013: Submission of manuscripts with final minor changes - Starting April, 2013: Publication of the special issue on the TiiS website, in the ACM Digital Library, and (shortly afterward) as a printed issue HOW TO SUBMIT Please see the instructions for authors on the TiiS website (tiis.acm.org) ABOUT ACM TiiS TiiS (pronounced "T double-eye S") is a recently founded ACM journal for research about intelligent systems that people interact with. The journal's procedures and infrastructure have been designed to combine the traditional quality and depth of ACM journals with the efficiency and predictability of the best-run conferences. Remco -- Remco Chang Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science Tufts University http://www.cs.tufts.edu/~remco (office) 617-627-3681 (lab) 617-627-6514

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Cfp: ACM Interactive Tabletops & Surfaces 2012
by Petra Isenberg 16 May '12

16 May '12

Call for Participation: Papers & notes, demos, posters, and doctoral symposium ACM Interactive Tabletops & Surfaces 2012 "Surfaces Every Day" ---------------------------- November 11-14, 2012 Cambridge, MA, USA http://its2012conf.org/ Twitter: @its_2012 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/ITS-2012/201803849895141 ------------------------------ The field of Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces is rapidly evolving. Hardware prices are falling, core sensing technology is improving, software toolkits are maturing, and interaction paradigms are slowly beginning to solidify. As a result, interactive tabletops and surfaces are increasingly making their way beyond laboratories and appearing in a wide variety of private and public spaces including museums, offices, schools, airports, hotels, medical centers, and homes. Such surfaces employ a variety of technologies (capacitive sensing, computer vision, motion sensors, etc.) and appear in varied form-factors (large walls and tabletops, tablets and slates, flexible materials, on-demand projection, etc.). The ACM conference on Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces brings together researchers and practitioners from a variety of backgrounds and interest areas. The intimate size of this single-track symposium provides an ideal venue for leading researchers, practitioners, and students to exchange research results and experiences. We encourage submissions on (but not limited to) the following topic areas as they relate to interactive tabletops and surfaces: Systems for, experiences with, and/or evaluations of surfaces in specific application areas (education, science, business, entertainment, health, accessibility, homes, etc.) Gesture-based interfaces Multi-modal interfaces Tangible interfaces Novel interaction techniques Data handling/exchange Information visualization/data presentation Software engineering methods Computer supported collaborative work Co-located, distributed, or mixed-presence collaboration Middleware and network support Virtual reality and augmented reality Social protocols Hardware, including sensing and input technologies with novel capabilities Human-centered design and methodologies Interaction in context Evaluations and user studies CALL FOR PARTICIPATION: PAPERS AND NOTES We invite paper submissions of two kinds: Papers (10 pages) and Notes (4 pages). Papers must present original, innovative, and forward-looking research, possibly in one or more of the themes given above. Notes must also report novel and complete research, but with a more focused and succinct contribution than papers. Submissions must be submitted as a single PDF file in the ACM format through the submission system. When appropriate, authors are also encouraged to submit a supplementary video file (not to exceed 3 minutes in length and 30 MB in size). Important Dates June 25, 5:00 p.m. PDT: Deadline for initial submissions August 1: First-round notifications (Revise or Reject) August 24, 5:00 p.m. PDT: Deadline for revised submissions September 12: Final notifications (Accept or Reject) September 22: Deadline for camera-ready submissions New Review Process We are excited to introduce a new review process for ITS 2012. For details please see the cfp on our website: http://its2012conf.org/participationPapers.html#papers Mentoring ITS 2012 offers a mentorship program to help those with less experience in academic publication. This mentoring program is intended primarily for authors from non-academic backgrounds, including industry. Mentors will be the chairs or volunteers who are familiar with successful submissions at ITS and relevant conferences (such as CHI, UIST, and CSCW). They will help you prepare your submissions to the ITS audience through one-on-one advising. However, please note that we cannot guarantee that your submission will be accepted at ITS in any case. The deadline to submit a mentoring request is 5:00 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time on June 12, 2012. Please see the website for further details: http://its2012conf.org/participationPapers.html#papers CALL FOR PARTICIPATION: DEMOS The ITS demo session provides an interactive forum for authors to present research prototypes and work-in-progress to conference attendees and receive feedback from the leading experts in interactive surface research. Both independent demonstrations and those accompanying accepted papers and posters are welcome. At the conference, we want the ITS participants to literally get in touch with your demos with the goal of having lively discussion and a hands-on experience. Demo proposals should be submitted through our online system in the form of: * a video of up to 3 minutes length * a 2-page extended abstract that will be published in the ACM DL (Latex template, Word template) and * a supplemental text document describing the necessary spatial and technical requirements for your demo (template will be made available soon). Please submit your video and PDF documents through the conference submission system by August 7, 2012. For specific queries, please contact: demos(a)its2012conf.org CALL FOR PARTICIPATION: POSTERS We invite researchers and practitioners to submit their work to the poster category of ITS 2012. Posters provide an interactive forum for authors to present research prototypes and works in progress to conference attendees. Posters provide the opportunity for researchers to get feedback on early-stage work, and to discuss potential collaborations in an informal setting during the conference. Submissions should be in the form of a 4-page extended abstract. The posters themselves will not be submitted with the abstracts - instead they should be brought to the conference by the author. The abstracts will be published in the main conference proceedings and will be included in the conference USB memory stick. They will also be placed in the ACM Digital Library, where they will remain accessible to thousands of researchers and practitioners worldwide. Important Dates * August 7, 5 p.m. PDT: Submission deadline * September 10: Notification to authors * September 20: Camera Ready version due CALL FOR PARTICIPATION: DOCTORAL SYMPOSIUM The ITS Doctoral Symposium is a forum in which Ph.D. students can meet and discuss their work with each other and a panel of experienced Tabletop researchers in an informal and interactive setting. We will give preference to applicants beyond the proposal stage and well into their dissertation research. Each applicant should provide a short written paper (no more than six pages in ACM landscape format). This paper should describe ongoing work and might summarize the student's full dissertation work, or highlight a particular part in depth. In addition, each student is asked to present a poster describing his or her work to the full conference. Doctoral Symposium papers will be published in the ITS conference companion distributed at the conference. Accepted authors will have free registration to the conference. The Doctoral Symposium will take place at the conference venue on Sunday, November 11, 2011 (for accepted authors only!). Submission details * Doctoral Symposium Submission Template * August 7, 5 p.m. PDT: Submission deadline * August 24: Notification to authors * September 20: Camera Ready version due * Submit proposals to: doctoralsymposium(a)its2012conf.org

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