Far from reality: scientific visualization

Abstract

Universe is generally perceived as made of colorful and detailed objects, in which lights and shadows reveal fascinating geometries. Nonetheless, astronomical observations are mainly made of numbers representing the incoming data, which are often converted into images, in order to be better understood. The display process implies a set of rules for encoding the information in a visual form, but this code is not always acknowledged. When visual representations are used to display invisible data using highly figurative analogies (i.e. imitations of reality), they can lead to misinterpret nature of the data. We propose the use of more arbitrary and less figurative representations and investigate the suitability of multi-sensorial representations, testing them with both seeing and visually impaired people.