Hugh Bollinger / Sunday, July 10, 2011

Knowing how to see

Leonardo de Vinci used the phrase Saper Vedere-- knowing how to see --to express his idea of making connections between diverse observations. That is how he developed those forward-thinking flying contraptions from watching birds in flight or how he saw, in ripples of water or human hair waving in fluid air, designs for his paintings. Nowadays, we might call Leonardo's approach connecting the dots or seeing the big picture. Visualizing insights or patterns in gathered data is no less useful today but we have powerful, new, tools to help the process along. However, it is still the questions, the eye, and the intelligence of the observer that are critically important in creating a new picture-- either scientifically or artistically --that reveals something novel to everyone. The Center for Advanced Molecular Imaging at Northwestern University has developed methods to display the larger patterns buried within reams of research data on multiple flat screen panels. As one researcher commented: “You make discoveries much quicker when you have a different way of viewing your data." [caption id="attachment_5413" align="aligncenter" width="650" caption="Molecular representations credit: Northwestern University"]

[/caption] An interesting article-- in the Business pages of the New York Times no less --describes several technological advances that allow scientists and artists to view their research data or imaginative insights in new and creative ways. Leonardo's flying machine never got off the ground-- it was too cumbersome and gravity hadn't been discovered yet --but his approach to looking at the myriad forms and designs in the natural world still inspires us to think outside the box. WHB

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Tags: New York Times data visualization Center for Advanced Molecular Imagaing imaging Leonardo de Vinci Northwestern University saper vedere science and art

Knowing how to see

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