Visualizing Ourselves... with Crowd-Sourced Data with Aaron Koblin (TED Talk)

by Lily Frame

In this TED talk,  Aaron Koblin presents the cultural trends and changing relationship between humans and technology from generated data and digital technologies which derive from results of the real-world and communities around us. Koblin specializes in data and digital technologies such as interfaces. An interface is a device or program enabling a user to communicate with a computer. He believes data can make us more human-- a statement I initially disagreed with because how could modern technology possibly make us more human? In fact, I thought it made us less human because we have become in tuned with the world of social media and shut out the world around us. I now believe every human is intertwined with the rest of society without even realizing it. I was wrong to doubt great visual stories could be told through data.

I have a theory Aaron Koblin is an anthropologist filmmaker because he transforms the data and different contributions he collects into a product of human behavior. Visually, I was transfixed by the results of Flight Pattern, The Sheep Market, and his SMS examples. This world of data and interfaces can be intimidating for those like myself whose kryptonite are scientific areas of study. Koblin has physically taken me out of my comfort zone and has placed my educational anxieties into an art form to tell a beautiful story about the world around him. He has has artistically freed me from my fears and has allowed me to explore data as a means for storytelling. I feel obligated to tell captivating stories whether it be narratively or experimentally. From Koblin, I learned that these interfaces can be a powerful narrative tool that encourages me to collaborate within my community. By removing the stress of data and interpreting it as an art form, I am compelled to create a story which encompasses  the world and humanity that is all around me. A random thought to close on: I wish an interface was created for people to share their wishes for the future; to express how they’d like the future to unfold.

Different Ways of Knowing with Daniel Tammet (TED TALK)

Perception is a cognitive awareness that is unique to each human life. It is distinguished through the five senses: taste, sight, touch, smell, and sound. It allows us to interpret and understand the world around us, determines our character and attitude, takes flight to our life’s purpose, influences mankind, and gives meaning to our interpretation of happiness. But what happens when these senses cross-talk and form different cognitive awareness’?

Daniel Tammet is a rare, real-world example of this phenomenon because of a cognitive disorder called synesthesia, as well as a high functioning autistic savant. In this TED Talk, he elaborates on how words, numbers, and colors are woven together to create a new way of perceiving the world. This rare condition appropriates itself when he stated, “My worlds of words and numbers blur with color, emotion, and personality.” By exploring three individual instances of synesthesia, the audience is allowed to interpret this unique vision of human life as well as explore the nature of perception and how different kinds of perceiving create different kinds of knowing and understanding.

Unlike most, Daniel Tammet solves mathematical problems visually because he interprets number as shapes and character; the number six, in Tammet's eyes, is a "tiny and very sad black hole." I can't help but ask myself is, if the number six is written as a word rather than in numerical form, does he still have this visual experience? Is six still  a tiny and very sad black hole? Through his own emotions, Tammet can interpret the meaning of a word because “Words like numbers,” he states, “express fundamental relationships between objects and events and forces that constitute our world.” He argues that language evolves in a way that creates sound and thus merges with one’s own personal intuitive experience. Tammet interprets words visually. He describes that words together are colors and emotions and textures. As I type this, I can’t help but imagine how much more stimulating the world must be from his eyes.

Daniel Tammet is a prime example of how our personal perceptions are at the heart of how we acquire knowledge. In fact, this blog assignment is a prime example of how perception is a central concern of all art forms. Why else would artists obsessively study the structure of the eye and depth perception, optical illusions, and visual dysfunctions? In this blog, I have included my own perception of his perception of the world. I am learning how to see the world with new eyes.