Article published in:
Information VisualizationEdited by Marian Dörk and Isabel Meirelles
[Information Design Journal 25:1] 2019
► pp. 6–20
Dendrochronology of U.S. immigration
Pedro Cruz | Northeastern University
John Wihbey | Northeastern University
Avni Ghael | Northeastern University
Felipe Shibuya | State University of New York at Buffalo
Stephen Costa | Boston Planning & Development Agency
Immigrants are central to the identity of the United States, the population of which has grown in number and diversity as
a function of new arrivals from around the globe. This article describes a visualization project that uses the visual metaphor of tree rings
to explore the contribution of immigrants to the country’s population. Immigrants and native-born persons are represented and differentiated
as cells in trees, with layered annual rings capturing patterns of population growth. These rings register, in their shape and color,
certain environmental conditions. In order to mimic the natural process by which growth rings are formed, we devised a computational system
that simulates the growth of trees as if cells were data-units. Dendrochronology involves dating certain events by analyzing patterns of
growth in trees. Analogously, in our visualizations the rings can be counted and dated, showing the chronological evolution of the
population. The dendrochronology theme is a poetic take on the data, yet it is also a functional and conceptual space that is used to
construct language and rationales on that data. The tree-growth process not only inspires the appearance of the visualizations but also
informs the rules of the computational system that creates them.
Keywords: information visualization, data visualization, information design, data art, graphic design, figurative metaphors
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.
For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.
Published online: 16 March 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/idj.25.1.01cru
https://doi.org/10.1075/idj.25.1.01cru
Full-text
References
References
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Cruz, P., & Machado, P.
Cruz, P., Wihbey, J., Ghael, A., Costa, S., & Shibuya, F.
(2018) Process of simulating tree rings for immigration in the U.S. (pp. 1–17). Presented at the
IEEE VIS Arts Program Annotated Projects
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