We recently launched the Raindrop web application as part of FLOW: Can You See the River, a project conceived by Mary Miss. Our team started on the project about a year ago, when Mary and her studio began meeting with us and scientists from Butler University and Williams Creek Consulting to build an app illustrating the concept that “All property is riverfront property.” When Mary and I began discussing the project, we talked about the challenge of catching a person’s attention and then engaging them with a visual experience that could lead them to deeper levels of information and insight about the natural world. This is essentially what a good visualization does, so I was excited to be part of the team building this technological bridge between art and science.

Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Technology

It has come to my attention that the tweets are out of the bag about the new interactive admissions map on the IMA dashboard. The map is a mashup of our admissions data using the Google Maps API and a zip code demographics resource called ZIPskinny. I thought that I would take some time today to discuss the art and science of colormap selection that went into developing this visualization.

Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Design, Technology

The heat of summer is definitely upon us and as I sit here in my office, I can’t help but wish I was outside roasting away! So, for those of you looking for a good excuse to get some fresh air and a little adventure, I thought I’d share with you my one of my new favorite pastimes… LETTERBOXING!

(stay tuned for a great way to experience the IMA grounds before the end of this post!)

A friend told me about how they went letterboxing on a recent vacation and was surprised that I’d never heard of it before. Letterboxing is similar to its more recent cousin, GeoCaching, and involves hiding small boxes with journals and stamps inside them. The idea being to bring your own stamp and journal with you to collect a log of all the treasures you have found! Letterboxers leave clues to the locations of boxes they have planted online for others to find. Experienced letterboxers can collect hundreds of stamps from around the country and individual boxes can stay alive for many years! As I began to learn a bit more about it… I was hooked!

Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Art and Nature Park, Horticulture, Local, Musings