Flash is a good environment for visualizing data and particularly since the release of Flash MX we've seen a lot of useful charting components released. Graphical representation can be a useful way of providing the viewer with a qualitative understanding of the information's contents. Data can also be made to appear beautiful by applying imagined abstract schemas to transform the data into something else, Art.Praystation.com's http://ps3.praystation.com/pound/v2/piece, made by Joshua Davis and Branden Hall, is a great example of this technique to make Art. Data Packets received from a live network stream are transmuted into onscreen coloured circular nodes with varying gravity and mass. The interconnected nodes tussle and wrestle with each other, pulling each other around in a Brownian-motion swirl influence. Information is also converted into sound bringing about synaesthetic representation of living data flows between computers.
Marcos Wesakmp has made an even more musical http://www.marumushi.com/apps/synapsis/index.html using carnivore, this time nodes get attracted to central sphere of influence, the host?, in a http://hirshhorn.si.edu/collection/gallery/calder.htmlkinetic dance. Be sure to check out the recorded version if the live version appears not to work.
The mechanisms involved within the carnivore visualization are multi-part. Firstly, CarnivorePE, a software application gathers internet traffic data on a specific network, it then serves this vapour of information to a client, the client essentially visualizes the info, through graphics, animation and sound. You may be interested to know that carnivore technology is based on the FBI's snooping application for computer surveillance with the same name.
At Pitaru.com you can find the http://www.pitaru.com/72s/combined/index.html, an interactive musical instrument built in Flash MX. In this piece 8 envelopes of sound can be manually contorted using sliders. A crystalline structure at the epicentre of the piece unfolds and mutates in response to interaction and sound changes. Try setting one of the 8 envelopes to solo and you get a pretty good idea of how to play the instrument as well as viewing the relationship between the 'visual architectural element' and the sound.
Aside from more abstract visualizations, some artists are using more traditional methods of mapping data to make artistic statements in Flash. http://www.theyrule.net/uses a bespoke database to map the connected ownership of power and wealth within multinational corporations. Through interaction we find that many of the same individuals sit on boards across different corporations but have vested interests and use collective network power for probable personal gain and political motivation.
Another practical visualization with a strong info-aesthetic is http://www.marumushi.com/apps/newsmap/newsmap.cfm, again created by Marcos Weskamp. Newsmap sucks in data from the google news aggregator and converts it into a http://www.artmuseums.harvard.edu/mondrian/ grid of headlines. Headlines are collected into categories represented by colour. The frequency of reportage for each story is further reflected in the amount of space each story takes up as a block on the screen. The basic visualization blueprint used here is that of the http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/treemap-history/.
As any aficionado of http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/work will surely agree, a good data visualization is a powerful way of representing complex data in a readable way. Flash artisans have also proved that raw data can be a wonderful base material for producing compelling dynamic aesthetic experiences.
This article is the third in an ongoing series looking at the more artistic end of the Flash Spectrum. The previous two articles can be found http://www.actionscript.com/flashweek/00000662.html and http://www.actionscript.com/flashweek/00000655.html.