It’s often said that every major city has a heartbeart, with a unique pulse all its own. That metaphor is made by visible by the wonderful maps produced by photographer Eric Fischer as part of his Geotaggers’ World Atlas – a data visualization project in which he plotted Flickr photos on a map, highlighting 50 major cities worldwide.

Shown above is a portion of Fischer’s map of Boston. The different colors represent different modes of transportation: Black is walking (less than 7mph), Red is bicycling or equivalent speed (less than 19mph), Blue is motor vehicles on normal roads (less 43mph); Green is freeways or rapid transit (43+ mph). More black and red, please!

Immediately upon encountering these maps on the Flickr Blog, I was reminded of visual representations I’ve seen of dendrites – the branched projections of neurons that conduct electrochemical stimulation within our cells. The image shown at right is from the University of Wisconsin – Madison Department of Physiology’s Binaural Physiology Lab. It shows the onset response revealed through intracellular labeling as part of the lab’s anatomical studies of brain cells. The “dendritic tree” is shown in red, along with a system of axons is shown in black.

Shortly after graduating from college, I moved across the country to Catalina Island, twenty-six miles off the coast of Los Angeles, for a job as an instructor at the Catalina Island Marine Institute. During that time (early 90′s), I can remember learning a bit about the large-scale effects of ocean currents on marine debris. Several years later, researchers discovered what would become known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch – a growing mass of floating trash collecting within the ocean as a result of converging currents. In the years since then, I’d admittedly lost track of this issue. Recently, while doing a bit of research for this informational graphic (above) to accompany an article in Environment California’s newsletter, I was shocked to learn how immense we’ve allowed this “patch” to grow – twice the size of Texas!

For more information, watch an enlightening video feature GMA did on the issue in 2008.

While conducting some research for a project several months ago, I came across the interesting work of Jenny Bergström, a designer and researcher in Stockholm. I was particularly intrigued by her 2007 research project entitled “This is the air we breathe…”, in which she uses a flock printing technique to display air pollution over time in an urban environment.

billboard revealing pollution via flock printing

You can view the progression of air pollution being revealed on this sign over time at Bergström’s website.

An excerpt from her website:

This is the air we breathe… provides instant feedback on our actions in the city. By using a technique for printing called ‘flock’ a dirt absorbing text or pattern can be printed on a less dirt absorbing surface and create a slow but direct response on pollution. People passing every day by car will be reminded of how they effect the urban environment.
In the city we are used to being approached by information from almost all directions. The commercialized urban environment consists of messages, constantly fighting for our attention, loud and/or with rapidly moving images. This is the air we breathe… uses another method in order to communicate. It demands time from the receiver and it does not deliver a straight answer.

Her website also contains an interesting and thought-provoking research paper entitled “Fear & Design”, (available as a PDF file) It investigates “how design can work with or against fear”, and “raises questions about fear and how rules about fear can be used in the design process”.