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Designers and decision makers in societal design are increasingly embracing opportunities brought by new advanced visualization techniques (such as Virtual Reality techniques and different forms of multimedia). But how will this increased use influence these processes and how will it change the outcome? If we accept that this technology use will have impact then it will in the long run influence vital democratic aspects, such as the growths or decline of social engagement among citizens.
The purpose of this project is not to answer these almost overwhelming questions concerning overall societal changes but to begin a "naming and framing" (Schon, 1987) of the influence visualization techniques might have on certain specific design processes. It is necessary to formulate a conceptual framework for the use of advanced visualization techniques in societal design. This project is such an attempt.
Information technology has a number of extraordinary properties, such as an unprecedented ability to store information, process and calculate data, manipulate symbols, etc. One of the most important properties of information technology today is its capacity to advance visualization. To see information technology as a visualization technology is in line with the new growing understanding of information technology as primarily a sensory and experience based technology (Waterworth, 1995; Smoliar & Waterworth & Kellock, 1995; Ivanov, 1995).
To visualize can be understood as a way to show the structure, order, form, dynamics, flow, relations, etc., in a visual way, i.e. in a way that to a lesser degree rely on the users imagination but more on his/hers senses.
Visualization techniques may in a broader context be understood as the use of all senses in the attempt to convey understanding and meaning to data or information. Visualization techniques are all around us in everyday life. We use signs, drawings, models, symbols in traffic, signs in work places, at home, to convey meaning and information to ourselves, friends, and colleagues. Some techniques are very simple, e.g. traffic signs that with a small and simple symbol visualizes a danger or a rule that would be difficult to show at sufficient speed and precision with the use of text. Of course, even text and language is a way to visualize sounds and words.
In this project we are focusing on visualization techniques that are made possible by the use of information technology. These techniques can be everything from a word processor to a highly advanced flight simulator. In between we have visualization techniques such as all forms of multimedia and virtual reality techniques, but also techniques not primarily focused on the visual but more on the dynamics, such as systems for simulation of dynamic processes or interactive educational software and games.
We can use this technology to study processes in places we can not reach or that are too dangerous or too expensive to experience in real life. And we can use the technology to test "what-ifs" and to manipulate dynamic processes or structures without the risk of accidents or failures. And we can work with systems without the limits set by time and resources.
It is possible to distinguish between, at least, two kinds of use of visualization techniques. The technique can be used to: (1) visualize something existing and/or (2) visualize something not-yet-existing. The first one can be understood as a description (of the "real" reality) and the second one as an imagination (concerned with a future or fictive reality).
When technology is used to depict or describe reality new questions arise, such as the relation between reality and the representation. With virtual reality techniques this relation becomes even more delicate. Even if we in the case of the not-yet-existing have the same problem to some extent, it has a different meaning. According to Coyne (1995) there are two ways to deal with the relation between the real and the representation. We can adopt a correspondence or a constructivist view. In the first case (correspondence) representations can be measured in relation to how well they actually "copy" reality. It is a strive for a kind of photo realism. In a constructivist view appreciation of "realism" is something that has to be learned, since it "is a cultural phenomena" (Coyne, 1995).
This means that visualization, according to a constructivist view, is not necessary about photo realism but a question of choosing a visualization that the expected "readers" understand in a planned way. Coyne uses the expression the "appreciative community" to show that "reading" skills are culturally determined and also something that changes over time.
This means that whenever we changes the technology used to visualize we also need to change the "appreciative community" if we want to be sure about how the visualization is read and understood. Throughout this paper visualization is understood based on a constructivist view. One reason for this is that when the focus is on the not-yet-existing there are never a reality that can be used as a measure on how well the visualization is made. A new design has no "reality" - it is "only" an idea, a thought. Description in this case can not be related or measured as true or not, instead it has to be valued according to the reactions and actions it evokes in the reader. It becomes a more pragmatic tool in design instead of a tool for analyzing the truthfulness.
One idea to get away from the question of "realism" is to understand technology as having the ability to disclose a world, not by depicting or describing it, but by showing us differences between our perception of the world and the portrait of the world shown in the visualization. We can based on this view leave the question of truthful representations behind and instead focus on how well different visualization reveal and discloses a new reality to us.
In many practical situations we both want to have a representation of something and at the same time be able to simulate. Based on two studies it is shown that sometimes the use will slowly change from being visualization about the existing to be about the not-yet-existing, or the other way around. In societal design both of these uses may be found. However, in this project the focus is on the use where people try to visualize something not-yet-existing.
Visualization technology changes the way we are used to face information on future designs. For example, instead of using static maps or models of a new city district, visualization technology makes it possible for the designer to "enter" the planned district, to be able walk through it, to see and experience new areas, houses, open places and to see how it appears in different light, at different times, with or without people, etc.
Instead of being forced to imagine the qualities of the new design it is now possible to experience them. Even if this new technology cannot, today, fully justify all aspects of new design proposals there is already experiments and attempts done to use the technology in real situations, for instance in the design and planning of new sports arenas or new shopping malls. And also experiments where politicians and planners are given the opportunity to experience how it is to be in a wheel chair in a city center.
Modern advanced visualization techniques can be described as dynamic and concrete, while traditional techniques (such as maps, tables, models and text) are static and abstract. They are static in the sense that they can not visualize dynamic processes and time related changes in the visualized design. They are abstract since they only capture a few of the aspects needed to get a full understanding of a design, and also because they demand an intellectual transformation before they can be experienced. The concrete instead are direct available to our senses. "VR is thus the culmination of our recent, technologically-motivated, cultural progression towards the concrete and away from the abstract" (Waterworth, 1996).
A good example of how really advanced visualization technique could be like is the computer game SimCity. In this game it is possible to design a city. The design is dynamic in the sense that many time related activities are built in the system, e.g. the economic system is dynamic, buildings and streets age and has to be repaired, everything demands energy that has to be supplied, etc. There are even social reactions built in, so if you design a city with high crime, or bad streets, the citizens will complain. Of course, SimCity is only a game and the dynamic structures and relations built in is very limited (but still complex enough for the player). Still, the game presents a good picture of what might be the future of societal visualization techniques.
When new technology is being used things happen. There are two basic skills involved in the use of visualization techniques: the "writing" skill and the "reading" skill (Borgmann, 1995). Writing and reading are here used as generic concepts to denote all activities involved in the creation of a visualization of a specific design or plan and similarly all activities involved in the "use" of that design or plan.
With the use of visualization techniques new skills are demanded from those who have the responsibility to "write" or construct the visualization. Depending on the techniques used it might include graphic design, musical composition and editing, the construction of animated or 3D dynamic and interactive "worlds". One general consequence seem to be that aesthetic form and dynamic presentation will become more and more important.
Since visualization is more aesthetic and dynamic "reading" design proposals will become more experienced based. To see, experience, and maybe even participate in dynamic processes (physical or social) "performed" in a virtual reality will radically change the preconditions for the handling of complex situations for designers, planners and decision makers of societal systems. Such a move towards concreteness will drastically reduce the need for specific reading skills - "now the abstract to concrete mapping involves no conscious effort on our part" (Waterworth, 1996). With the help of this technology it will, for instance, be possible to almost to experience a new planned city district, or a new sports arena, or a new information infrastructure.
This is a big change, since it will decrease the need for specialized professional "reading" skills (Borgmann, 1995). Today all information "reading" demands an intellectual effort that often requires training and education. The skills of reading and understanding abstract descriptions and models are essential to be able to take part in the societal design and decision processes. The new technology changes these demands. This transformation is the focal point of this paper.
In a democratic society there is always a continuous discussion on how to make the further development of society into a process that will allow citizens to be part of the process. That means to envision new and alternative designs of our future society in a way that makes it possible for as many citizens as possible to "read" and understand them. The way the envisioning can be done and how that will influence the design process and maybe even the outcome is crucial to the way society will evolve. Today society rely on traditional visualization techniques such as text, drawings, and (physical) models. Except for physical design almost the only technique used is a text description (maybe added with tables of statistical data).
The use of the new technology will not only change the way new designs can be envisioned but also when and how citizens can take part in the process. If a design for a new educational system in a city is "visualized" as a system where anyone can see how students will be moved from different areas to different schools. If anyone can do simulations and ask "what-if" questions to that design, e.g. concerning economy, teacher-student ratio, school hours. What will happen? And what if this visualization is made accessible through the use of Internet and WWW so people can explore the new design proposal from their homes in their own choice of time.
Another aspect of this new use is if the use will influence the outcome, i.e. if the way people will make choices about a certain design will be influenced by the way it is visualized. In the small studies presented below there are some indications that this is the case. But will this also happen in a larger societal setting? Every change in how the societal design process will be carried out have impact on society itself. It will change the "appreciative community" (Coyne, 1995). A change of technology might change who can participate and on what premises, this might in turn affect the basic democratic process in society.
The Vistia project
In the Vistia project we are both empirically and theoreticall studying the existance and importance of a changed use of advanced visualization techniques in some to society important design and planning processes.
The purpose is to empirically and theoretically study the existence and importance of a changed use of technology in some, to the society, specific and important design and planning processes.
We are studying the relations and mechanisms behind the transformation of these processes caused by a changed use of IT and especially advanced visualization techniques.
To reach our purpose we are studying actors participating in this technology use, arenas where the use takes place, the visualization techniques used, why the technology is used, and how this use will change the preconditions and outcome of these design and planning processes.
The project will try to find out how the new visaualization technique:
(1) changes designers, planners and decision makers need of competence,
(2) changes decision makers way to approach complex information and design suggestions,
(3) affects the outcome of societal design and planning
(4) changes the prevailent rhetoric and consequently also power relations, social roles and influence over these processes.
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Last updated: 10 Nov 1999
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