How technology is both a blessing and a curse

Alan Smith OBE @theboysmithy Data Visualisation Editor #NTTS2019 Brussels, 12 March

Data visualisation

ArtTechnology

Science

DV

Technology

19th Century

Luigi Perozzo, “Stereogram” of Swedish census

21st Century

CB Insights (via WTFViz) Goldman Sachs open job listings

Silo

Collaborative

Divergent

Escaping the silo

d3.js

“For more than a month, I used Tableau to recreate the guide so the Tableau

Community could use these examples to learn and guide their work”

Andy Kriebel

“It looks like you’re trying to produce a

terrible chart. Would you like me to help?”

Clippy

datavizsociety.slack.com

medium.com/multiple-views-visualization-research-explained

Divergent thinking

Willard Brinton Graphic Presentation (1939)

Rethinking the yield curve

A yield curve inversion has preceded every recession in the US since WWII

Spread

data sonification

Using a whole tone musical scale to sonify the yield curve

C D E

F# G# A#

C3

C3 D3 E3 F#3 G#3 A#3 C4 D4 E4 F#4 G#4 A#4 C5 D5 E5 F#5 G#5 A#5 C6 D6 E6 F#6 G#6 A#6

C4 C5 C6

A six tone scale in which each note is placed a whole tone (2 notes) apart from its nearest neighbours...

...is mapped over 4 octaves to give 24 evenly spaced notes

The scale is then used to “quantise” the dataset, assigning each data point to a note in the scale

0 5 10 15Yield curve21/10/1987

An arpeggio of the notes allows the daily yield curve to be played, in this case as an ascending sequence of notes. Yield curve inversions ripple downwards, providing a big melodic contrast

An arpeggio of the notes allows the daily yield curve to be played, in this case as an ascending sequence of notes. Yield curve inversions ripple downwards, providing a big melodic contrast

The four octave range suits an instrument

such as the marimba

The four octave range suits an instrument

such as the marimba

Yields (%)

1 month bond 23/09/2016(0.09%) produces C3 note

1 year bond 03/09/1981(17.31%) produces A#6 note

MIDIMusical Instrument

Digital Interfacev1 1983

(v2 2019)

ft.com/chart-doctor@theboysmithy

How technology is both a blessing and a curse

Alan Smith OBE @theboysmithy Data Visualisation Editor #NTTS2019 Brussels, 12 March

Data visualisation