Tag: Fanny Chevalier

1862 – De Chancourtois' Telluric Screw

The French geologist Alexandre-Émile Béguyer de Chancourtois was the first scientist to see the periodicity of elements when they were arranged in order of their atomic weights. Credited with being the original discoverer of the periodicity of elements and the originator of the three-dimensional method of element arrangement and representation. He drew the elements as a continuous spiral around a metal cylinder divided into 16 parts. The atomic weight of oxygen was taken as 16 and was used as […]

Added by: Fanny Chevalier. Category: Uncertain  Tags: chemistry, periodic table, telluric screw


1865 – Hofmann's Croquet Ball Models

August Wilhelm Hofmann was the first to introduce physical representations of molecules into lectures during his Friday Evening Discourses presentation "On the Combining Power of Atoms" at London's Royal Institution of Great Britain in . He introduced a colored set of four croquet balls to represent atoms (hydrogen, oxygen, chlorine and nitrogen), implanted with a fixed number of sticks corresponding to each atom's valence. Thus we distinguish the chlorine atom as univalent, the atom of oxygen […]

Added by: Fanny Chevalier. Category: Uncertain  Tags: chemistry, education, molecules, pragmatic, science


1866 – Dewar's Brass Strip Models

Mechanical arrangement adapted to illustrate structure in the non-saturated hydrocarbons by the chemist James Dewar. The model is made of bars, clamped together so as to allow free motion. In order to make the combination look like an atom, a thin round disc of blackened brass can be placed under the central nut. At the ends of the arms are holes to connect one carbon atom with another by means of a nut. The structure at the bottom right of his figure is now called "Dewar benzene". I bring […]

Added by: Fanny Chevalier. Category: Uncertain  Tags: chemistry, discovery, molecules, science


1875 – Van't Hoff's Molecular Paper Models

Van’t Hoff disseminated his stereochemical ideas to leading chemists of the day by sending them 3-D paper models of tetrahedral molecules, like these now housed in the Leiden Museum. There might be some difficulty in following my reasoning. I felt this myself, and I have made use of cardboard figures to facilitate the representation. Not wanting to require too much of the reader I will gladly send him the complete collection of all these objects Sources: Van der Spek, Trienke M. Selling a […]

Added by: Fanny Chevalier. Category: Uncertain  Tags: chemistry, paper, science, tetrahedral molecules


1898 – Crookes' Vis Generatrix

Model of Crookes’ "Vis Generatrix" made in 1898, built by his assistant, Gardiner. From: Proc. R. Soc. Lond. 63, 408. The vertical scale represents the atomic weight of the elements from H = 1 to Ur = 239. Missing elements are represented with a white circle. Similar elements appear underneath each other. With this model, Crookes was trying to visualize the hypothetical relationship between various elements in three dimensions. See all the other entries with the tag "periodic table" to see […]

Added by: Fanny Chevalier. Category: Passive physical visualization  Tags: chemistry, crooke, generatrix, periodic table


2009 – How Much Sugar do you Consume?

Nutrition labels are often difficult to apprehend: when you drink a can of coke, you consume 39g of sugar, but how much is that? In order to increase consumer's awareness of how much sugar they ingest when eating and drinking, several campains have used a physical visualization using actual sugar cubes and sugar grains to represent the sugar content in food. Many examples can be found online (search for "sugar stacks" and "rethink your drink"). It is unclear when these representations started. […]

Added by: Fanny Chevalier. Category: Passive physical visualization  Tags: concrete scale, food, single-datum, sugar


2010 – Quipu of the Periodic Table

As a result of bringing together each pair of periods in a single function or binod, the author has found a new regular on the subject, which has been defined as a new quantum number, since the number of orders or regulations binod growth elements in the table, under the appearance of pairs of new types of quantum structures or periods whose organization responds to a simple mathematical function: a parable of the type Y = 4 X ^ 2 - In this case report: a) That the strings correspond to pairs […]

Added by: Fanny Chevalier. Category: Passive physical visualization  Tags: chemistry, periodic table, quipus


2011 – Sleep Patterns

Laurie Frick's Pokey Red is a physical visualization of sleep data over a month. Frick makes an interesting use of the physical support: in her visualization, periods of sleep of a lesser interest (light sleep) are folded up, giving more importance to the periods of quality sleep (coloured rectangles), while remaining integral part of the visualization. "Pokey Red" 12 in x 12 in, cut paper, watercolor and ink. Based on a month of sleep data, with the light sleep (aka trash sleep) periods folded […]

Added by: Fanny Chevalier. Category: Passive physical visualization  Tags: paper, quantified slef, sleep, temporal data


2011 – Blip: A Year of Travel

In his experiments with visualizing data from Tripit to look back at his own (and other people's) travel, Cemre Güngör came up with a new system to create data sculptures from one's travels over time. This work is of a particular interest, in that it shows an excellent example of how a physical visualization design process unfolds, with many questions unique to physicalization add up to the challenge of designing an effective visual representation, i.e., contrasting materials and treatments […]

Added by: Fanny Chevalier. Category: Passive physical visualization  Tags: see-through, self-logging, temporal data, travel


2012 – What made me

An interactive public installation where visitors could engage by picking coloured strings corresponding to feelings, inspirations, thoughts or influences that make the person they are today, and link these strings to words on the wall to make a path visualizing associated concepts tied to each of these feelings, inspirations, thoughts and influences. WHAT MADE ME was designed by Dorota Grabkowska and Kuba Kolec for the Birmingham Made Me Design Expo (15-22 June 2012) at the Mailbox, […]

Added by: Fanny Chevalier. Category: Passive physical visualization  Tags: emotion, graph, participatory


2012 – Bit Planner - LEGO calendar

Vitamins studio created The Bit Planner, an elegant wall mounted time and resource planner made entirely of Lego bricks. In this tangible calendar, each gray row represents a month, and each gray rectangle represents a week, and everyone in the group has their own line in the calendar (see left image). Projects are associated to different colors, and each LEGO block corresponds to half a day spent working on a project. While entirely tangible, the Bit Planner can be synched with an online, […]



2014 – Data Storytelling with LEGOs

   LEGO blocks are convenient tools to progressively construct a physical visualization while unfolding a story. In the same vein as Hans Rosling's educational stories on data, Brookings fellows use LEGO bricks to explain societal concerns such as how much the U.S. tax system helps shrink the gap between extreme social classes1 and the chances for economic success of Americans born at the bottom of the economic ladder 2. Sources: […]

Added by: Fanny Chevalier. Category: Passive physical visualization  Tags: LEGO, rearrangeable, storytelling


2015 – U.S. Cost of Political Campaigns

The New York Times has used stacks of Monopoly plastic hotels to explain what the cost of the U.S. political campains means in terms of households. Though closer to concrete scales than it is to data visualization (that usually presents data in a more structured manner), this representation made of physical pieces from the famous board game makes the message particularly compelling. According to the New York Times, Just 158 families have provided nearly half of the early money for efforts to […]

Added by: Fanny Chevalier. Category: Passive physical visualization  Tags: concrete scale, finances, LEGO, Monopoly, politics


2015 – Beeswax Maps Crafted by Bees

Artist Ren Ri uses beeswax as his medium for making geographical maps and a bee colony as the builder. This original project results in beautiful data visualizations collaboratively crafted by a human and a bee colony! Here's how it works: Because a colony will follow the queen bee and build a hive based on the pheromones that she releases, Ri is able to move the queen such that the others in the colony act accordingly. More details on the project can be found on the Flowing Data blog [1]: The […]

Added by: Fanny Chevalier. Category: Physical model  Tags: beeswax, cartographic, geography


2015 – 3D Paper Model of Shrinking Aral Sea

The Aral Sea in Uzbekistan, formerly one of the largest lakes in the world, has been drying up since the 1960s and is currently 10% its original size. Peter Vojtek made a 3-D paper model that shows the shrinkage — from 1957 on top, down to 2007. Each layer represents the surface outline during the corresponding year on the right. Vojtek also provides his paper template in case you want to fashion your own box. Sources: FlowingData Peter Vojtek (2015) 3D Paper Model of Shrinking Aral Sea.

Added by: Fanny Chevalier. Category: Passive physical visualization  Tags: cartographic, paper model, temporal visualization