Katy Börner attends DASER at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C.

On Thursday, April 25 in Washington D.C., SLIS professor Katy Börner sat down with colleagues from the fields of psychology, fine art, and academic publishing to discuss the topic of data visualization as part of the 2013 DASER series hosted by the National Academy of Sciences. DASER (D.C. Art Science Evening Rendezvous) is a monthly forum bringing together scientists and artists to explore the vital connections between the two communities and to promote interdisciplinary work.

This month’s DASER talk focused on the ways in which data visualization can be a useful tool across a variety of disciplines and how the particular skills from each discipline can be employed to enhance the process of data visualization itself. As part of the evening’s proceedings, Dr. Börner discussed her recent Information Visualization MOOC, an online course that drew students from a number of intellectual fields, as well as the Places & Spaces: Mapping Science exhibit, the international exhibit of science maps from across the scholarly spectrum that Börner has curated for the past nine years.

The choice of Places & Spaces as a topic was especially fitting because this DASER forum amounted to a reunion of sorts of key figures in the exhibit story. Joining Börner and National Academies Press executive editor Stephen Mautner onstage were cognitive psychologist Gary Berg-Cross, a longtime Places & Spaces advisor whose passionate support of science mapping has been instrumental to the exhibit’s success, and New York-based artist Ward Shelley, creator of “History of Science Fiction,” one of the exhibit’s most popular works.

Those in attendance at DASER on April 25 enjoyed a lively discussion of data visualization conducted by some of the subject’s leading authorities. But in case you missed it, Thursday’s forum will be available on the Cultural Programs of the NAS YouTube channel in the near future.