Vis Politics and the Work of Mauro Martino

Vis Politics is a compilation of interactive studies on a number of topics, put together by several researchers, including Mauro Martino, who spoke in our class. These studies cover several topics, such as politics, energy, crime, and social networking, all presented in a graphically-rich and interactive way. One of the studies that I found most appealing, both visually and because of the quality of the data, was The American Energy Spectrum, by a website called Good.is. The infographic shows the distribution of energy generation and usage in America. The generated energy is shown as a list of several energy sources and how much energy source generates, and how much each source wastes. Also added is data on how energy is used, and how much consumed energy is used and how much is wasted. I found this particular study interesting because it showed exactly how much energy America generates, and especially how much it wastes. Specifically, America generates 94.5 Quadrillion (94.5 Million Billion) Btu of energy, and 54.5 Quadrillion of that is wasted.

Several other projects piqued my interest. Political Climate shows how important several issues were to Americas for the last ten years. For example, in 2001, Terrorism was a non-issue for most, but in 2002, after 9/11, 83% felt it was an important issue. Another study I found interesting is the County Sin Ratings, which shows statistics related to the Seven Deadly Sins for US counties. My home county, Cumberland, ME, shows low to mid "sin levels," whereas Suffolk, MA, where Boston is, shows mostly high sin levels. How Different Groups Spend Their Day shows what activities different age groups, socioeconomic groups, etc. do each day. Unsurprisingly, people aged 15-24 spend a lot of time in school, whereas people 65+ spend a lot of time watching TV and movies. Finally, a GE study on energy usage shows how much energy different home appliances use. Electic furnaces use the most power, but air conditioners cost the most to run each year. All of these studies, with their visuals-heavy presentation, made learning the information much more satisfying.