Jesse Newman | Between the Lines: Examining Hidden Authorship in Data Visualisation through Early Modern Women’s Marginalia

This event will be held both on-campus and online.

Jesse Newman graduated with First Class Honours in Design in 2023. Their work as a designer is focused on supporting collaborative work and communication. This has largely been in digital and information interfaces and organisational systems. Jesse is currently a Higher Degree by Research (HDR) candidate at the Australian National University, researching the application of design methods to embed collaborative practices in healthcare. To this research, they also bring over ten years’ experience working in the engineering and electrical industries.

Data visualisation is central to the issue of communicating how we see what we see. This work explores how designers and their collaborators can acknowledge their influence in how information is presented and how they might invite the voices and influence of others. The construction of data and its visualisation looks directly at the ontologies and methodologies we each use to make sense of the world. The constraints of what can be communicated in an image force us to make choices that imprint and reflect these individual perspectives.

This talk will examine the interpretation of data visualisations and the overlooked role of authorship. It recognizes that data visualisations are always interpreted but seldom is this interpretation or its influence on authorship acknowledged. The research hinges on data derived from marginalia by women in the 16th and 17th centuries. These are handwritten marks made in the margins of books. Marginalia demonstrate the capacity of books to carry a dialogue between pre-structured and post-structured information. They challenge how we engage with the mutability of digital interfaces, which have largely borrowed their structural elements from printed material. The work explores how textual interpretation practices can be applied to data visualisation interfaces, critically examining the applications of conventions in print and digital designs, and exploring new methods for interpretive engagement.

This event will be held both on-campus and online via Zoom (a link to the online stream will be sent to registered attendees).


The School of Art & Design Seminar series will continue weekly on Tuesdays from 1-2pm, between 13 February and 14 May 2024. 
To see information about upcoming speakers and to register to attend please follow this link https://rb.gy/v923bn
The School of Art & Design Seminar Series is co-convened by Dr Alex Burchmore, Alia Parker, and Elisa Crossing.