My interest in the fields of spatial visualization and cartography stem from a background in graphic visualization for broad audiences. The role of effective visual communication has shaped my previous education and career which allowed me to recognize and appreciate the challenges within cartographic design.
After obtaining an undergraduate degree from the University of Montana in television production, I relocated to San Francisco to pursue a career as a 3D animator. I spent several years as an animator before moving to Seattle to start my own business designing digital content for broadcast and the internet. During that time I worked on several projects that required the creation of thematic maps, which lead to my interest in cartography.
I am currently pursuing a PhD in geography and my specific areas of interest are interactive and on-demand cartography and 3D visualization. My master’s thesis explored gesturing techniques for map navigation using multi-touch interfaces and I recently completed custom versions of the hardware and software.
For this class, I would like to rely on some of the programming languages that I already know (C#, ActionScript, Java, JavaScript, PHP) and also learn some new techniques for effective visualization. I would currently place myself between the ‘Designer’ and ‘Vis Scientist’ perspectives that we talked about in class.