Me-ifestos for Visualization Empowerment in Teaching (and Learning?)

Jan Aerts, Wolfgang Aigner, Benjamin Bach, Fearn Bishop, Magdalena Boucher, Peter C.-H. Cheng, Alexandra Diehl, Jason Dykes, Sarah Hayes, Uta Hinrichs, Samuel Huron, Christoph Kinkeldey, Andy Kirk, Søren Knudsen, Doris Kosminsky, Tatiana Losev, Areti Manataki, Andrew Manches, Isabel Meirelles, Luiz Morais, Till Nagel, Rebecca Noonan, Georgia Panagiotidou, Laura Pelchmann, Fateme Rajabiyazdi, Christina Stoiber, Tatiana Landesberger, Jagoda Walny, and Wesley Willett

Abstract

One sunny June afternoon in a remote castle deep in Saarland, a group of visualization researchers of many stripes — from different countries, disciplines and generations — came together to discuss teaching and learning for empowerment in visualization. Our first order of business in Saarland was to develop a shared vision: a manifesto of sorts that would guide us towards strategies to broaden data visualization skills, make them more common and accessible, and enable this empowerment. That exercise failed. Instead of creating one common manifesto (who are we to do that, anyway?), we took a different, more personal approach. We found things we liked and things we didn’t: inspiration and counter-inspiration, we crafted individual value and commitment statements ("me-ifestos"), we shared these with each other and reflected on them. The process of writing these commitment statements was illuminating and motivating. It was a positive experience with such visceral effects that we want to share the feeling with the visualization community. And so we offer a collection of "me-ifesto" excerpts from the authors and a call to action: we invite you to craft and divulge your own me-ifesto.

image representing the publication, for example, using a figure from the publication
Cite as
  1. Aerts, Jan, Wolfgang Aigner, Benjamin Bach, Fearn Bishop, Magdalena Boucher, Peter C.-H. Cheng, Alexandra Diehl, Jason Dykes, Sarah Hayes, Uta Hinrichs, Samuel Huron, Christoph Kinkeldey, Andy Kirk, Søren Knudsen, Doris Kosminsky, Tatiana Losev, Areti Manataki, Andrew Manches, Isabel Meirelles, Luiz Morais, Till Nagel, Rebecca Noonan, Georgia Panagiotidou, Laura Pelchmann, Fateme Rajabiyazdi, Christina Stoiber, Tatiana Landesberger, Jagoda Walny, and Wesley Willett. "Me-ifestos for Visualization Empowerment in Teaching (and Learning?)." Alt.Vis 2022 (2022)
    PDF
Bibtex
@article{aerts2022me-ifestos,
  title = {{Me-ifestos for Visualization Empowerment in Teaching (and Learning?)}},
  author = {Aerts, Jan and Aigner, Wolfgang and Bach, Benjamin and Bishop, Fearn and Boucher, Magdalena and Cheng, Peter C.-H. and Diehl, Alexandra and Dykes, Jason and Hayes, Sarah and Hinrichs, Uta and Huron, Samuel and Kinkeldey, Christoph and Kirk, Andy and Knudsen, Søren and Kosminsky, Doris and Losev, Tatiana and Manataki, Areti and Manches, Andrew and Meirelles, Isabel and Morais, Luiz and Nagel, Till and Noonan, Rebecca and Panagiotidou, Georgia and Pelchmann, Laura and Rajabiyazdi, Fateme and Stoiber, Christina and von Landesberger, Tatiana and Walny, Jagoda and Willett, Wesley},
  journal = {Alt.Vis 2022},
  year = {2022}
}