What Public Visualization Can Learn from Street Art

As public visualization is receiving more attention in academic research as well as in everyday practice we need to consider the physical environment as an important intrinsic component of its design. We propose that one should not disconnect a public visualization from the context in which it is read, as its immediate environment carries various meanings that influence its perception and interpretation. As the concept of street art also employs invisible meanings that are present in the environment in order to convey a message, it can act as a valuable resource for public visualization designers. As such, we will discuss four rhetoric strategies in order to demonstrate how street art practices succeed in relating to their environment, and how this relationship is able to trigger critical reflection. Departing from three public visualization case studies which are inspired by street art we discuss how they influence the appeal, the engagement and the sense-making process. For each of these rhetoric strategies, we describe design guidelines in order to help designers of public visualizations exploit communicational codes and meanings that are present in the environment.