Different Approaches of Visualising the »Information Flow«

Mapping Knowledge: Visualised Information and Transparent Knowledge Structures

Individuals, influenced by their environment, actively create information and knowledge, which develops in interactive processes, especially in social learning processes. Paying tribute to this conviction, the interactive installation »Energy_Passages« offers passers-by the status of being active observers - instead of passive consumers – who can participate in the content of daily papers according to personal interest.

Computer based knowledge media and -tools – so called »Knowledge Discovery Tools« – visualise content relations and show the relation of subjects linked to each other within specific knowledge areas by means of word clusters. The text analysis program, which has been developed for »Energy_Passages«, examines relations within the generated press texts and creates clusters of catchwords that are selected from the topical subject pools. The observer can thus “read” the results of the digital analysis from the catchword clusters that evolve from the »information flow«.

The visualisation of information, evolving from the flow projection, functions like a graphical index of knowledge structures, comparable to a knowledge map. Like on a map, words occur to guide orientation in the information landscape. The “mapping” of knowledge comprehends texts as »woven« structures with correlating information rather than linear »information flow«. The content-related and visual principles guarantee the easy survey of linked subjects from daily papers. By selecting catchwords, the observers can activate those topics they are interested in.