I watched the videos on nuclear bombs detonated since 1945 and life expectancy. Starting off the with the former, it was an old video that showed locations and every explosion of a nuclear bomb around the world. The detonation of a bomb was represented with a blinking light and a sound. Throughout the top and bottom borders of the graphic, there were country flags with a number next to them, showing exactly how many bombs were dropped. This presentation is effective because it really emphasizes the growth of nuclear weapons around the globe. At first in 1940s, there were only a couple explosions at most during the decade. As the decades went on, especially during the 60s-80s, the amount of explosions and blips on the screen increased seemingly exponentially. Additionally, more and more countries appeared on the top and bottom borders, signifying that an increasing amount of countries were obtaining nuclear weapons.
The second video showed a moving graphic, presenting another time lapse. This time lapse showed the changes in life expectancy vs. fertility rate of women in different countries. Countries were represented with colored bubbles, and moved around a two axis graph.
What new possibilities does interactive and/or sequential visualization unlock for DH projects?
These interactive and sequential visualizations provide an efficient way of presenting large amounts of data. Conventionally, if one were to present to changes in life expectancy vs. female fertility rate of different countries throughout decades, it would take a up tons of space, tables, cells, and reading to present that data. By presenting that data in such a way that goes beyond the simplistic, boring, and dense method, the audience will not only be more receptive to learning, but will also be more interested due to the colorful graphics.
Byron, I also thought that the interactive visualizations were innovative in trying to convey information. Interactive visualizations, as you said, efficiently present large amounts of data. This way of creating visualizations also makes the data more accessible than multiple maps. It also seems that both the videos were very well planned, including the graphics and sounds. I, too, pondered what data could be visualized in this way, as it could be useful for many subjects. I suspect people will create more of these visualizations after the pandemic. These may include a visualization of how COVID-19 spread across the planet or how the coronavirus numbers in various countries changed over time.
I agree with what you said about COVID-19! I definitely think after this is all over, there’ll be lots of these types of visuals.