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Quantifying Culture: Four Types of Value in Visualisation

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Electronic Visualisation in Arts and Culture

Part of the book series: Springer Series on Cultural Computing ((SSCC))

Abstract

As cultural heritage work increasingly involves quantitative data, the need for sophisticated tools, methods and representations becomes ever more pressing. The field of information visualisation can make a helpful intervention here. This chapter explores four types of value associated with visualisation (cognitive, emotional, social and ethical/political) and discusses their prospects and limitations, including examples. The chapter concludes with a case study illustrating the value of visualisation.

This chapter is an updated and extended version of the following paper, published here with kind permission of the Chartered Institute for IT (BCS) and of EVA London Conferences: C.A. Sula, “Quantifying Culture: The value of visualization inside (and outside) libraries, museums, and the academy.” In S. Dunn, J. P. Bowen, and K. Ng (eds.). EVA London 2012 Conference Proceedings. Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC), British Computer Society, 2012. http://www.bcs.org/ewic/eva2012 (accessed 26 May 2013).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pratt Institute, School of Information & Library Science, 144 West 14th Street, Sixth Floor, New York, NY, 10011, USA

    Chris Alen Sula

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  1. Chris Alen Sula
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Correspondence to Chris Alen Sula .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Informatics, London South Bank University, London, United Kingdom

    Jonathan P. Bowen

  2. Department of Archaeology, University College London, London, United Kingdom

    Suzanne Keene

  3. School of Computing & School of Music, University of Leeds, Interdisciplinary Centre for Scientific Research in Music (ICSRiM), Leeds, United Kingdom

    Kia Ng

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Sula, C.A. (2013). Quantifying Culture: Four Types of Value in Visualisation. In: Bowen, J., Keene, S., Ng, K. (eds) Electronic Visualisation in Arts and Culture. Springer Series on Cultural Computing. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-5406-8_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-5406-8_3

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  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-5406-8

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