Thematic Background

Visualization as a tool for analysis, exploration and communication has become a driving force in the task of unravelling the complex urban fabrics that form our cities. Yet, there is a crucial need to bridge the gap between the flood of urban data and the capacity of decision makers to integrate that data into effective and informed decisions. The CityVis workshop wants to critically assess this notion and ask how data and data visualization can be used to serve and better understand or even organize urban processes, focusing on an explicitly “human-centric” perspective. In our previous workshops we have developed an initial framework for such perspectives or rather design considerations, which should inspire, but not limit, future submissions (Goodwin et al, 2021). These perspectives should support and improve the understanding and the utilizations of data for all stakeholders - from governments and companies to citizens. This workshop should help us further refine those concepts and particularly look at how we can go beyond traditional techniques and approaches.

Workshop theme:
Underneath the Smart City

Beyond academic research the discourse on the visualization of (smart) cities is often dominated by dashboards. From traffic dashboards to crime data analysis dashboards. Focussed on purely quantitative information, those visualizations are designed to help administrators deduce decisions from the visual artefacts. To support the decision making process the complexity of cities is often abstracted into simplified schemas and visualizations, generalizing the multidimensional qualities of urban spaces into a small number of arbitrary indicators. Many visualization experts, urban planners and humanity scholars, are arguing for a shift away from such simplified perspectives, towards more inclusive and comprehensive forms of visualization or rather communication.

In this workshop we would like to explore those new perspectives. During the workshop we would like to outline this specific field and therefore invite innovative ideas, design concepts, requirement analysis and work-in-progress in the following scopes:

During the workshop, participants will be given a brief introductory presentation by the organizers to outline the workshop scope, followed by a selection of case study presentations (chosen from the accepted papers). The rest of the workshop will consist of interactive activities, making use of creative design thinking techniques, to encourage participants to collaboratively try to refine the definition of the urban data visualization theme. Through this interactive workshop, we aim to refine definitions, goals, and challenges for urban visualizations.

Promoting interdisciplinarity

Throughout all CityVis workshops we have been promoting interdisciplinarity. While the workshops have a strong focus on visualization, we invite researchers from all disciplines, who work with/on visualizations or at the intersection to the above topics. We believe interdisciplinary and diverse perspectives to be crucial for broadening the conversation and uncovering new perspectives on our research and practices.

Timeline

Submission of Abstracts

We invite researchers and practitioners to submit abstracts on case studies in the domain of urban visualization, in particular focusing on the theme “Underneath the Smart City” and relating to the scopes mentioned above (see Workshop Theme).

Abstracts must consist of no more than 5,000 characters (approx 2 pages). There is not a standard structure, but we encourage you to include sections on: Research Purpose, Background, Design/Methodology/Approach, Originality/Value, Practical Implications, Impact.

The submitted abstracts will undergo a double-blind peer review through the program committee. All accepted abstracts will be published on the workshop website (open access). Furthermore, all accepted abstract authors are invited to extend their abstract to a (short) paper and become part of a special issue on urban data visualization (see below).

Please use the provided template for creating your abstract. The template is based on the springer submission guidelines, thereby, everyone who wants to submit their work for the special issue, can continue working on the same document.

Please submit your abstract through our EasyChair instance. In order to submit you need to create an EasyChair account.

Submit your abstract

CityVis Competition & Exhibition

If your work has also resulted in a visual artifact (installation, website, interactive prototype, video, etc.), we also strongly encourage you to submit your work to our CityVis competition (same deadline). All submissions to the competition will become part of the CityVis collection on this website and the best submissions will be awarded and exhibited.

Special Issue for Workshop Contributions

To continue documenting the work around urban data visualization, we are partnering with the KN - Journal of Cartography and Geographic Information, to produce a special issue. All workshop contributors are invited to extend their abstracts into short or full papers. Acceptance to the workshop does not imply acceptance of the paper to the special issue. The journal will run an additional review process on the papers, before acceptance to the special issue. The KN is the official journal of the German Cartographic Society and, thereby, strongly connected to the works of the International Cartographic Association (ICA).

If you have any questions, please get in touch.

Chairs

Program Committee

Contact

If you have any questions don't hesitate contacting us sebastian.meier@fh-potsdam.de