MAPPING
CONTROVERSIES | 2005
Exhibition Design, Interactive Information Cartography, Event Identity
Client: Gallery of Research | Galerie der Forschung | Vienna, Austria |
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Installation
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The Controversy of GM Foods
was the Pilot event of the Gallery of Research, held in an under-construction
hall in Vienna, January 2005. The concept of the event was to provide
a prototype of the display of scientific controversies as they are
played out in real time - thereby rendering actual science democratic
and open towards public debate.
The design process occurred in several phases: The development of
cartographic systems for the visualisation of actual scientific data
(for example analysis of the principle actors, publications, articles,
history, national invilvement, etc), rendering a complex field somewhat
more digestable as a spatial / visual map. The maps produced can
be used for any scientific field and are based on the principle of
"scientemetrics" (the analysis of the sociology of science through
the mining of publishing activities.) Three protype, interactive
maps were created, each having their own distinct features of visualisation:
The Sonnogramme (the temporal history of a discipline, as mapped
out through keywords and actors in a linear sequence); The World
Map (The dominance of countries involved in a field of research animated
and scaled accordingly through time, where nations are displayed
and connected together); and Network Cartography (not designed by
Leaky Studio).
The maps were given over to scientists to help with their analysis
with the help of a statistician who is trained in interpreting the
visual "answers" the maps generate.
The event itself called for a mise-en-scene of a controversy, where
a stage was built within a old Jesuit hall with a beautiful fresco
ceiling. A "perfect" network map was employed for the irregular geometry
of the stage, where nodes became poles supporting a series printed
cloth "walls", projection screens and tables. Above, a wire structure
outlined the vectors of the map below, all the while leaving the
fresco ceiling in full view. The stage was divided into 3 sub-stages
as well as a central area where a video and sound installation of
GM Food protesters could be seen / heard.
Three scientists were invited to "perform" their results with the
assistance of the maps. Standing in the midst of three rear projections,
the audience which floated from sub-stage to sub-stage, they actively
angaged with the public on the same level, since the public was also
on stage - doing away with a top down pedagogy of expert knowledge.
On a general level, there were also GM Food illustrated timelines
of the debate and scientific development, upon which key events were
noted and expanded upon with "footnote" tables - allowing for the
elaboration of the event. Journalists and the public would use these
funstional swivle tables, yet at the same time gain an insight into
the debate through the illustrated tables.
Simulating the "everyday" nature of the debate a fragment of a supermarket
shelf was also created where visitors could take souvenir canned
foods home with them. In the course of research three main vegetable
products were strongly identified with the debate (Tomatoes, Soja
Beans and Mais), as such fake labels were made for empty cans indicating
the history and national involvement in the GM production of such
common products.
Filling an entire 5m wall was a huge sign indicating the dominance
of keywords associated with the debate in English and German, colour
coated based on their relationsips and scaled in their dominance.
The iconography of the event was meant to be punchy and pop. As such
the symbol of a smashed tomato was used, both for it's implication
in the GM food debate, and the action of smashing, of making it messy
and rendering it's contents visible - not to mention the act of doubt
the symbol represents for something a public opposes (the throwing
of tomatoes when a public disapproves of something).
Programming of Information Cartography by Aguidel, Paris
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