Big Data has become essential to science and business. What is less well-known is that it has also entered the realms of art and the humanities. Martin will discuss some of these artistic applications, and how they hold clues to solving tough, practical design problems.
Martin Wattenberg is a computer scientist and artist and the co-leader of Google’s “Big Picture” data visualization group.
Before joining Google, he co-founded Flowing Media, Inc., a visualization studio focused on media and consumer-oriented projects, with Fernanda Viégas. Prior to Flowing Media, they led IBM’s Visual Communication Lab, where they created the ground-breaking public visualization platform Many Eyes. From 2005 to 2010, Wattenberg founded and managed IBM's Visual Communication Lab, exploring new forms of visualization and how they can enable better collaboration. A key project was Many Eyes, an experiment in open, public data visualization and analysis.
Wattenberg is known for his visualization-based artwork, which has been exhibited in venues such as the London Institute of Contemporary Arts, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the New York Museum of Modern Art. He holds a Ph.D. in mathematics from UC Berkeley.