【连线图集】当数据遭遇艺术：十幅精妙绝伦的科学视图

原作者：
来源Data as Art: 10 Striking Science Maps | Wired Science | Wiredcom
译者Lineker

The computer age triggered a seemingly endless stream of scientific data, but such incoming mountains of information come at a cost. The more data you amass, the tougher it is to comprehend what you're dealing with.

计算机时代催生了海量的科学数据，但如此让人仰止的信息大山也是要付出代价的。你积累的数据越多，要去领会它背后的深意就越难。

In a push for better perspective, a group of information scientists in 2005 created a decade-long competitive art exhibit called Places & Spaces: Mapping Science. From artistic pop-culture plots to illustrations of the state of scientific collaboration (above), the founders hope winning entries inspire researchers to present their troves of data in clever and digestible ways.

为了争取对数据进行更好的解读，2005年，一个由信息科学家组成的研究小组创建了一个名为“位数和空间：绘图科学（Places & Spaces: Mapping Science）”的竞赛艺术展。从艺术化的流行文化作图到诠释科学合作的现状，艺术展的创办者希望获奖作品能激励研究者将自己搜集的数据以一种聪明易懂的方式呈现出来。

"Good science maps give you a holistic understanding of how the data is structured," said information scientist Katy Börner of Indiana University, a founder and curator of the exhibit. She is also author of the Atlas of Science, a collection of the maps gathered over the years. "You don't just have to use maps to find your way home. They can be ways to get global overviews on topics."

“优秀的科学作图会让你更全面的去了解数据的构建方式，”印第安纳大学的信息科学家凯蒂·伯尔纳（Katy Börner）说，她是竞赛艺术展的创始人兼管理者。伯尔纳同时也是《科学图集》（Atlas of Science）的作者，这是一本收集了很多科学绘图的专著。“也许它们无法帮你找到回家之路，但却能让你纵观某些主题的全球视角。”

The exhibit's advisory board follows a theme and some core criteria to pick 10 winners each year. This year's winning entries for the theme "science maps as visual interfaces to digital libraries" were announced this week. Exhibit-ready versions of the maps are scheduled for display in mid-June.

艺术展咨询委员会每年都会根据主题和某些核心标准来挑选出十幅获奖作品。今年的“从视觉接口到数字图书馆的科学作图（science maps as visual interfaces to digital libraries）”主题类获奖作品于本周公布，而绘图的展示版预计将于六月中旬进行展出。

We showcase some of our favorite winners here, in addition to a few that didn't make the final cut. Some maps are too small to properly appreciate here, but we include links to high-resolution versions for each of them.

《连线》从十幅获奖作品中挑选出一些精品之作，与几幅没有最后入围的作品结集在一起，共同呈现给读者。下面有些图片的尺寸过小，无法正常欣赏，但我们将每幅图片高清版的链接一一罗列在了文中。

Scientific Collaboration

科研合作

Inspired by a map of 500 million Facebook friends published in December 2010, research analyst Olivier H. Beauchesne created this winning visualization of international collaboration that occurred from 2005 through 2009.

2010年12月，有研究者公布了一份5亿Facebook用户的交友展示图，受此启发，研究分析师奥利维尔·博谢纳（Olivier H. Beauchesne）创作了这个展示国际性合作的可视化图，时间跨度从2005年到2009年，这份可视化图为获奖作品之一。

Each arc represents a collaboration between scientists in different cities mined from studies, books and trade journals found in Elsevier's Scopus database. Dense nodes of science emerge in the Americas, Europe and Japan.

图中的每条弧线代表了不同城市科学家们之间的合作关系，相关资料来自于爱思唯尔（Elsevier）斯高帕斯（Scopus）数据库收集的研究论文、书籍和行业刊物。图中的美洲、欧洲和日本都出现了高密度的科学节点。

Image: Olivier H. Beauchesne/Science-Metrix [high-resolution version]

图片来源：奥利维尔·博谢纳/Science-Metrix【高清版本】

Science's Genealogy

科学谱系图

About 39,000,000 papers were published in scientific journals between 1817 and 2010. To map the explosion of research, technology analyst M'hamed el Aisati graphed unique publications based on information in Elsevier’s Scopus database.

从1817年至2010年，全世界的科学期刊上一共发表了约3900万篇论文。为了展示研究的爆发性，技术分析师默罕默德·艾尔·爱萨提（M'hamed el Aisati）根据爱思唯尔的斯高帕斯数据库制作了这份独特的论文发表可视图。

Although the map was not a winner, it’s among our favorites. Aisati hopes to show journal pedigrees, as well as the rise and fall of specific scientific fields, in future iterations.

虽然这份可视图并不是获奖作品，但无碍我们去欣赏它。爱萨提希望能通过图片表现出期刊的起源，以及特定科学领域在未来的兴衰涨落。

Image: M'hamed el Aisati/Academic and Government Products Group (Elsevier), Amsterdam; Katy Börner and Angela M. Zoss/Indiana University [high-resolution version]

图片来源：默罕默德·艾尔·爱萨提/Academic and Government Products Group（爱思唯尔），阿姆斯特丹；凯蒂·伯尔纳和安吉拉·佐斯（Angela M. Zoss）/印第安纳大学【高清版本】

Tree of Life

生命之树

Another of our non-winning favorites, this map shows a sample of 76,425 recognized species — just a fraction of the 5 to 100 million estimated life forms in existence.

另一幅没有入围的佳作，这幅示意图展示了76425个已知物种的样本，科学家们估计地球上现存的生命形式有500万到1亿种，图片中标注的不过是九牛一毛。

The data was pulled from the Tree of Life project, an effort to document the lineage of Earth's organisms through time. Life's origin and humans, aka Homo sapiens, are labeled in red.

图片数据来自于“生命之树”工程（Tree of Life project），这是一项旨在记录时间维度下的地球生物体谱系。图中的生命起源和智人（Homo sapiens）都被标上了红色。

Image: Yifan Hu/AT&T Labs/Tree of Life [high-resolution version]

图片来源：胡一凡（Yifan Hu）/AT&T Labs/生命之树【高清版本】

Wikipedia vs. the Universal Decimal Classification

维基百科vs国际十进分类法

The structural differences between public categories in Wikipedia and academic ones in the Universal Decimal Classification, a formal library system, stand out sharply in this map.

这幅示意图极为醒目的展示了维基百科上公共目录和正式文库系统国际十进分类法（Universal Decimal Classification）中的学术目录在结构上的差异。

"We would like to scrutinize the question of how do knowledge maps differ when they are created socially (i.e. Wikipedia) as opposed to when they are created formally (UDC) using classification theory," the authors wrote in their exhibit-winning entry.

“我们想弄清楚这样一个问题：社会化形成的知识网络（维基百科）和利用分类理论正式创建的知识网络（UDC）之间存在多大差异，”图片作者在谈及这份获奖作品是这般写到。

Image: Almila Akdag Salah/Cheng Gao/Krzystof Suchecki/Andrea Scharnhorst/Den Haag/Knowledge Space Lab [high-resolution version]

图片来源：Almila Akdag Salah/Cheng Gao/Krzystof Suchecki/Andrea Scharnhorst/Den Haag/Knowledge Space Lab【高清版本】

Internet in a Desk

桌式互联网

Paul Otlet, a Belgian visionary who lived from 1868 to 1944, is often credited with anticipating an internet for the spread of knowledge. To create an internet-like learning environment before computers existed, he designed a one-person productivity station called the Mondothèque.

保罗·奥特勒（Paul Otlet），一位具有远见卓识的比利时学者，生于1868年，死于1944年，人们通常认为是他成功预测了用于知识传播的互联网的出现。在计算机还未出现之前，为了创造一个网络化的学习环境，奥特勒设计了被称为Mondothèque的单人学习操作台。

It was to harbor drawers brimming with reference books, microfilm and bibliographic cards. He also imagined radio, television and camera equipment at arm's length on the desk.

操作台的抽屉里塞满了参考书、缩微胶片和各种书目卡片。奥特勒还设想在手臂可及的桌子上摆上收音机、电视和照相设备。

This winning entry depicts Otlet's vision.

上述获奖作品将奥特勒的想象描绘在了图纸上。

Image: Courtesy of Charles van den Heuvel/HuygensING Institute; Stephanie Manfroid/Mundaneum [high-resolution version]

图片来源：查尔斯·范登·赫维尔（Charles van den Heuvel）惠赠/HuygensING Institute；斯蒂芬妮·曼弗洛伊德（Stephanie Manfroid）/Mundaneum【高清版本】

Metadata for Architectural Exploration

建筑学搜索元数据

To make all of Europe's architectural data easier to access, a community of users created the winning classification tree above, titled Metadata for Architectural Content in Europe.

为了使欧洲的所有建筑学数据更便于检索，几位用户创建了一个名为“欧洲建筑学目录元数据（Metadata for Architectural Content in Europe）”的分类树，这幅作品成功入围十佳。

The interactive version on the project's website allows users to search through a web of architectural vocabulary. Once a phrase is selected, relevant websites appear below to guide productive exploration.

分类树网站上的交互式图表让用户可以通过建筑学词汇来搜索网络。一旦某个词组被选定，相应的网站列表就出现在下方，大大节省了检索时间。

Image: Moritz Stefaner [high-resolution version]

图片来源：莫里茨·斯特凡（Moritz Stefaner）【高清版本】

A Universe of Standards

标准集合

Picking a standard is crucial to amassing a well-curated pile of data, but more than 100 widely used rule sets exist.

对于集合大量组织化数据来说，标准选择异常关键，但现在被广泛使用的规则集合有100多个。

To visualize how and when to use a particular metadata standard, library scientists in Idaho and North Carolina created this map, which was among the winners.

为了将特殊元数据标准的使用方式和时机通过可视化图表现出来，爱达荷和北卡罗来纳的文库科学家们创作上述图片，该作品亦位列十佳之列。

Image: Devin Becker/University of Idaho; Jenn Riley/University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill [high-resolution version and a glossary of standards]

图片来源：德文·贝克尔（Devin Becker）/爱达荷大学；简恩·莱利（Jenn Riley）/北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校【高清版本和标准词汇表】

Data Mining the Bible

圣经数据挖掘

Using a customized Java program, a duo of information scientists extracted as much data as they could from the Bible to create this winning entry.

利用自定义的Java程序，两位信息科学家从圣经中提取了尽可能多的数据，然后创作了上述可视图，这幅作品成功获奖。

The graphic above depicts a "social network" made of 2,619 people and places mentioned in the book. Below, the cross-references (colored arcs) are mapped to verses in chapters (gray bars).

上面这张图表描绘了一个由圣经中提到的2619个人物和地名所组成的“社会网络”；下方的图片展示了交叉参考（彩色弧线）被映射到不同章节中的经文（灰条）。

Images: Chris Harrison/Carnegie Mellon University; Pastor Christoph Römhild/St. Johannis-Harvestehude [high-resolution version]

图片来源：克里斯·哈里斯（Chris Harrison）卡耐基梅隆大学；帕斯特·克里斯托弗·罗姆希尔德（Pastor Christoph Römhild）/St. Johannis-Harvestehude【高清版本】

30 Years of Airline Travel

航空业三十年兴衰史

Airline-passenger flow in the Northern Hemisphere is shown in these annual snapshots.

这些年度报表展示了北半球的航班客流量。

This visualization didn't win, but we are looking forward to a video the authors plan to release that will show the booms and busts of airline travel throughout the past 30 years.

这幅可视化作品没有获奖，但其作者表示将发布一段展示过去三十年来航空业大起大落的视频，我们拭目以待。

Image: C. Rozenblat/Univ. Lausanne; G. Melançon/D. Auber/M. Mathiaut/Univ. Bordeaux [high-resolution version]

图片来源：C·罗泽布拉特（C. Rozenblat）/路易斯安那大学；G·迈兰根（G. Melançon）/D·奥柏（D. Auber）/M·马蒂耶斯（M. Mathiaut）/波尔多大学【高清版本】

The History of Science Fiction

科幻历史

This winning chronology of science fiction drawn by Ward Shelley is an artistic and surprisingly informative picture of the genre's evolution.

沃德·雪莱（Ward Shelley）绘制的这幅科幻编年史艺术性的再现了这类题材的进化历程，极富启示意义，该作品位列十佳。

From the advent of fear and wonder itself to the emergence of new space opera, Shelley covers hundreds of the most loved sci-fi works in print, film and television.

从恐惧和惊奇的出现，到新式太空小说的兴起，雪莱创作的可视图覆盖了文学、电影和电视领域中数百个最受欢迎的科幻作品。

Image: Ward Shelley/Parsons the Newschool for Design [high-resolution version]

图片来源：沃德·雪莱/帕森设计学院（Parsons the Newschool for Design）【高清版本】

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