Website review: USGS Astrogeology: Digital Geologic...
Someone discovered this in Astronomy
•1 reviews since Jan 7, 2007
astronomy, geology, science
•astrogeology.usgs.gov/Projects/PlanetaryMappi...
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laodan rated 7 months ago- Digital Geologic Maps of the Planets via info aesthetics, in astrogeology.usgs.gov
a collection of visually stunning maps of the geological composition of the lunar surface, based on data from lunar missions in the 1960's and 1970's. the contrasting colors & seemingly random shapes of the clusters of craters transform normally boring looking informational maps in objects of visual art. Digital Geologic Maps of the Planets Visualization, visualization! - The more complex the knowledge, about anything, the more we seem to transform it in visual terms in order to get a more instantaneous grasp of its usability. - This process of late-modern visualization is similar to the visualization offered by the visual arts in earlier periods (animism, religion, modernity). In other words the men of knowledge in each historical epoch produce knowledge about phenomena that are not directly accessible to the human retina. All knowledge that is not directly accessible to the retina is converted into visualizations. Such visualizations are transmitted by the retina to the brain for integration in the representation of reality operating in the brain of the observer. But one clear difference distinguishes late modern visualizations from its earlier artistic forms. In earlier epochs artistic visualizations were meant to unify the worldview of all citizens within any given society. Late modern visualizations are not concerned with this kind of societal unification they appear as mere tools for letting late modern men of knowledge gaining a more instantaneous grasp of the implications of the sum of knowings he has accumulated. This distinction between the societal functionality of artistic visualizations in earlier epochs from the late modern individual, or sectoral, functionality begs us to differentiate the nature of the knowledge in earlier epochs from its late modern version. In earlier periods knowledge had the societal function of unifying the individuals behind a common worldview. This kind of knowledge was holistic. It gave an interpretation of reality for all to share. The resulting sharing of a common worldview by the citizens of any society before high modernity assured the reproduction of those societies. Societal change was thus naturally slow as it privileged conservation of the societal order over the innovation spurred by individuals. In late modernity visualizations are meant to help those who research a particular segment or aspect of reality to make more instantaneous sense of the profusion of data their research returns. Such profusion of data should not be confused with knowledge (understanding of the whole of reality). It merely corresponds to an accumulation of knowings (one data added to another at the level of a particular segment of reality). This distinction between: - knowledge as an understanding of the whole of reality - and knowings as an accumulation of data at the level of a particular segment of reality is shaping the nature of the difference between: - art (as visual representation of the whole of reality) - and scientific visualization (as the visualization of an accumulation of data gained through the observation of a tiny segment of the whole). Art served societal reproduction but what do late modern scientific visualizations serve? Not the reproduction of societies for sure but what else could it be?
- Digital Geologic Maps of the Planets via info aesthetics, in astrogeology.usgs.gov
