title: Visualising Time

authors: Clarke, Greg

subjects: Time

abstract: This study investigates the visualisation of temporal relationships between objects.  A popular method employed for such information visualisations is the time line consisting of a single horizontal axis along which temporal events or objects are depicted at specific points or intervals.  The orientation of the temporal progression along the axis line will generally coincide with the orientation of the literary writing progression of the culture and language.  For example a time line visualised in a Western culture with English as its literary base will exhibit a temporal progression orientation of early/left, later/right whereas Arabian culture with an Arabic literary base will exhibit the reverse temporal progression orientation.  In both cultures and languages temporal metaphor use spatial concepts to describe temporal relationships with no discourse to transversal orientation.  This is reflected by never hearing the phrase “the months to the right” but rather “the months ahead”.  In science, Einstein showed via his special and general theories of relativity that time and space are interlinked.  The scientific rationalisation of time and space along with the use of spatial concepts as temporal metaphor implies that the underlying perception of time is spatial.  Information visualisations are the externalisations of our perceptions.  Therefore temporal information visualisations should employ spatial visualisation techniques.
This study evaluated spatial visualisation techniques for temporal information visualisations via a web survey.  The spatial temporal information visualisations used in the survey employed no temporal cues such as time or date stamps but conferred all temporal progression via spatial cues.  The findings from the analysis of the participant responses to the survey showed that spatial cues do impart temporal cues for temporal relationships.

text: Visualising Time This study investigates the visualisation of temporal relationships between objects.  A popular method employed for such information visualisations is the time line consisting of a single horizontal axis along which temporal events or objects are depicted at specific points or intervals.  The orientation of the temporal progression along the axis line will generally coincide with the orientation of the literary writing progression of the culture and language.  For example a time line visualised in a Western culture with English as its literary base will exhibit a temporal progression orientation of early/left, later/right whereas Arabian culture with an Arabic literary base will exhibit the reverse temporal progression orientation.  In both cultures and languages temporal metaphor use spatial concepts to describe temporal relationships with no discourse to transversal orientation.  This is reflected by never hearing the phrase “the months to the right” but rather “the months ahead”.  In science, Einstein showed via his special and general theories of relativity that time and space are interlinked.  The scientific rationalisation of time and space along with the use of spatial concepts as temporal metaphor implies that the underlying perception of time is spatial.  Information visualisations are the externalisations of our perceptions.  Therefore temporal information visualisations should employ spatial visualisation techniques.
This study evaluated spatial visualisation techniques for temporal information visualisations via a web survey.  The spatial temporal information visualisations used in the survey employed no temporal cues such as time or date stamps but conferred all temporal progression via spatial cues.  The findings from the analysis of the participant responses to the survey showed that spatial cues do impart temporal cues for temporal relationships.

year: 2013

title: Making Sense of the Census: Classifying and Counting Ethnicity in Oceania, 1965-2011

authors: Broman, Patrick David

subjects: Ethnicity

abstract: As the flagship government effort to count and classify its population, censuses are a key site for rendering and making visible group boundaries. Despite claims to objective rationality, however, census taking is a political and inherently subjective exercise. Censuses help shape the very categories they claim to capture: censuses do more than reflect social reality, they also participate in the social construction of this reality (Kertzer and Arel, 2002b, p. 2). While ethnicity – as a social construct – is imagined, its effects are far from imaginary, and census categorisations may have significant material consequences for the lives of citizens.

Although an increasing number of studies have examined how and why governments in particular times or places count their populations by ethnicity, studies that are both cross-national and longitudinal are rare. Attempting to in part bridge this gap, this thesis studies census questionnaires from 1965 to 2011 for 24 countries in Oceania. In doing so, it explores three general questions: 1) how ethnicity is conceptualised and categorised in Oceanic censuses over time; 2) the relationship between ethnic counting in territories to that of their metropoles; and 3) Oceanic approaches towards multiple ethnic identities. Spread over an area of thirty million square kilometres of the Pacific Ocean, Oceania provides an interesting context to study ethnic counting. The countries and territories which make up the region present an enormous diversity in physical geography and culture, languages and social organization, size and resource endowment. As the last region in the world to decolonise, Oceania includes a mix of dependencies and sovereign states.

The study finds that engagement with ethnic classification and counting is near-ubiquitous across the time period, with most countries having done so in all five cross-sectional census rounds. In general terms, in ethnic census questions ‘racial’ terminology of race and ancestry has been displaced over the focal period by ‘ethnic’ terminology of ethnicity and ethnic origin. Overall, the concept of ethnic origins predominates, although interestingly it is paired with race in the US territories, reflecting the ongoing social and political salience of race in the metropole. With respect to ethnic categories provided on census forms (and thus imbued with the legitimacy of explicit state recognition) the study finds a shift away from the imagined and flawed Melanesian/Micronesian/ Polynesian racial typology and other colonial impositions to more localised and self-identified Pacific identities. It is theorised that these shifts are emblematic of broader global changes in the impetuses for ethnic counting, from colonially-influenced ‘top down’ counting serving exclusionary ends to more inclusive, ‘bottom up’ approaches motivated by concerns for minority rights and inclusive policy-making.

text: Making Sense of the Census: Classifying and Counting Ethnicity in Oceania, 1965-2011 As the flagship government effort to count and classify its population, censuses are a key site for rendering and making visible group boundaries. Despite claims to objective rationality, however, census taking is a political and inherently subjective exercise. Censuses help shape the very categories they claim to capture: censuses do more than reflect social reality, they also participate in the social construction of this reality (Kertzer and Arel, 2002b, p. 2). While ethnicity – as a social construct – is imagined, its effects are far from imaginary, and census categorisations may have significant material consequences for the lives of citizens.

Although an increasing number of studies have examined how and why governments in particular times or places count their populations by ethnicity, studies that are both cross-national and longitudinal are rare. Attempting to in part bridge this gap, this thesis studies census questionnaires from 1965 to 2011 for 24 countries in Oceania. In doing so, it explores three general questions: 1) how ethnicity is conceptualised and categorised in Oceanic censuses over time; 2) the relationship between ethnic counting in territories to that of their metropoles; and 3) Oceanic approaches towards multiple ethnic identities. Spread over an area of thirty million square kilometres of the Pacific Ocean, Oceania provides an interesting context to study ethnic counting. The countries and territories which make up the region present an enormous diversity in physical geography and culture, languages and social organization, size and resource endowment. As the last region in the world to decolonise, Oceania includes a mix of dependencies and sovereign states.

The study finds that engagement with ethnic classification and counting is near-ubiquitous across the time period, with most countries having done so in all five cross-sectional census rounds. In general terms, in ethnic census questions ‘racial’ terminology of race and ancestry has been displaced over the focal period by ‘ethnic’ terminology of ethnicity and ethnic origin. Overall, the concept of ethnic origins predominates, although interestingly it is paired with race in the US territories, reflecting the ongoing social and political salience of race in the metropole. With respect to ethnic categories provided on census forms (and thus imbued with the legitimacy of explicit state recognition) the study finds a shift away from the imagined and flawed Melanesian/Micronesian/ Polynesian racial typology and other colonial impositions to more localised and self-identified Pacific identities. It is theorised that these shifts are emblematic of broader global changes in the impetuses for ethnic counting, from colonially-influenced ‘top down’ counting serving exclusionary ends to more inclusive, ‘bottom up’ approaches motivated by concerns for minority rights and inclusive policy-making.

year: 2013

title: Mana Wahine reworking the power to name taonga

authors: Ringham, Sandra Lee

abstract: The capacity of Indigenous peoples to officially name taonga species (flora and fauna) within taxonomy signifies resilience and a reworking of western scientific processes and institutions. This article explores the ways in which Ngāti Kuri women contribute to environmental justice through the naming of taonga species. Ngāti Kuri were the first tribe in the world to install a tribal name into the co-authorship of a nomenclature. The article explores the ways in which Ngāti Kuri women, both past and present, rework environmental relationships and knowledge in both tribal and non-tribal spaces in Aotearoa's most northern region.

text: Mana Wahine reworking the power to name taonga The capacity of Indigenous peoples to officially name taonga species (flora and fauna) within taxonomy signifies resilience and a reworking of western scientific processes and institutions. This article explores the ways in which Ngāti Kuri women contribute to environmental justice through the naming of taonga species. Ngāti Kuri were the first tribe in the world to install a tribal name into the co-authorship of a nomenclature. The article explores the ways in which Ngāti Kuri women, both past and present, rework environmental relationships and knowledge in both tribal and non-tribal spaces in Aotearoa's most northern region.

year: 2023-01-01