Our thematic lab for Visceral Intersensory Visualization and Information Design (VIVID) will develop new knowledge, resources, and community around the Data Visualization and Information Design areas of Data Science, encompassing research, education, and outreach. Academic entities need to exploit the potential of Data Visualization and Information Design. These fields, which aim to render complex data accessible, understandable, and consumable by the intended audience, are ripe for innovation and disruption. The lab will serve as a hub for academic innovation, nurturing collaborations across campus and beyond. Any entity with data can benefit from visualization. while the lab will include research on traditional Data Visualization, we will also engage additional modalities as we take visualization beyond the traditional notion of a visual display. A display can encompass nonvisual information presentation. Technology is now primed to deliver new mechanisms to serve as nonvisual displays, including sensors, Augmented and Virtual Reality, craft, and 3D printing and fabrication. We will discover new ways to tailor data to the viewer, in terms of context and delivery mechanism. We hope to empower people to interact with data in new ways leading to better understanding and impacting communities through positive, emotion-provoking experiences.
