Benjamin Fry: computational information design | sketches

Benjamin Fry’s computational information design | sketches acts as an entry portal to four interactive sketches that combine information visualization, data mining, and graphic design to interpret complex datasets. Each sketch offers a unique approach to data representation and explores how visualization shapes new understandings of information. The sketch isometricblocks looks at deviations in genetic data among individuals, specifically so-called single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs or “snips”), single-letter changes that occur every few thousand letters in the genome and exhibit distinct patterns. Researchers look for these patterns in genome sections of hundreds of people in search of diseases such as Crohn’s—a dataset used in isometricblocks. The distellamap sketch visualizes the internal operations of code within six Atari 2600 cartridge games, among them Combat and Pac-Man. The maps show the code as columns of assembly language, with conditional statements—such as “if x is true, go to y —visualized as curves drawn from the point of the statement to its destination. The sketch salary vs. performance analyzes the relationship between team spending and rankings during the 2005 Major League Baseball season; and zipdecode allows users to input US postal codes to see their corresponding geographic locations on a map.