Economy Map: An Experiment in the Visualization of Complexity

Speaker
Jason Pearson
Founder, TRUTHStudio

When
-

Where
Newell-Simon Hall 1305 (Michael Mauldin Auditorium)

Description

What if we could see and dynamically interact with the entire US economy and its environmental impacts, all at once? What could that tell us about the economy, and about how we have chosen to organize human activity on this planet? And what power would it give us over the future, over where we should seek to redesign human activities to reduce environmental impacts and improve human health?

These questions motivated the ongoing experiment of Economy Map (www.economymap.org): an online, interactive visual map of the United States economy and its environmental impacts. Economy Map seeks to render transparent and legible relationships between economic demand, industrial activity, and environmental impacts, and thereby to support the tailoring of appropriate policy approaches to relevant industry sectors.

The seminar presentation will describe the custom visualizations and interaction methods that were developed to realize Economy Map, and seminar participants will be invited to engage in a discussion about Economy Map in the context of broader efforts to use customized information visualization in support of public interest objectives such as education, advocacy, and policymaking.

Speaker's Bio

Jason Pearson is the Founder of TRUTHstudio, a consultancy that provides research, analysis, strategy, visualization, and communication support to organizations working in the public interest. He is the former President and CEO of GreenBlue, a non-profit sustainability institute that equips business with the science and resources to make products more sustainable. Economy Map is a research project of TRUTHstudio.

Speaker's Website
http://www.truthstudio.com/about.html

Host
Haakon Faste