Platforms and tools for visualizing information have become ubiquitous in digital environments. Many of these visualizations were developed in the social sciences for management of demographic data and are marked by rationalistic bureaucratic attitudes. The aesthetics of such visualizations have become so familiar that their ethical implications become almost invisible. This talk examines the ethics of aesthetic qualities in visualizations used for presentation of data related to climate change, pandemics, and other catastrophic events.

Johanna Drucker is the Breslauer Professor and Distinguished Professor in the Department of Information Studies at UCLA. She is internationally known for her work in artists’ books, the history of graphic design, typography, experimental poetry, fine art, and digital humanities. Her work is represented in special collections in museums and libraries in the North American and Europe. Her recent titles include Downdrift: An EcoFiction and The General Theory of Social Relativity, both published in 2018. Off-World Fairy Tales, a collaboration with Susan Bee, was published by Litmus Press in 2020. Other new titles include Visualization and Interpretation (MIT Press, 2020) and Iliazd: Meta-Biography of a Modernist (Johns Hopkins UP, 2020).

Professor Drucker will be introduced by Tatiana Bryant, Research Librarian for digital humanities, History, and African American Studies and co-chairs the Digital Humanities Exchange (DHX). She is a member of the Digital Scholarship Services department at UCI Libraries.

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