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Syllabus

P000111 Visualization of Research within Landscape Architecture and Environmental Psychology, 5.0 Credits

Subjects

Education cycle

Postgraduate level

Grading scale

Prior knowledge

Admitted as PhD or licentiate student at SLU

Objectives

The aim of the course is to obtain knowledge and skills concerning visualization of research within the fields of landscape architecture and environmental psychology. This is done by first studying the meaning and use of research visualization within these two fields, and then by using visualizations in the student’s own research project. After the course, the PhD student should be able to:
• Identify and critically review research visualizations within the fields of landscape architecture and environmental psychology
• Use different programs and tools to create research visualizations
• Visualize e.g. a research model or concept based on the PhD student’s own research
• Develop a graphical abstract based on the PhD student’s own research
• Present the PhD student’s own research visualizations
• Describe and reflect on copyright and creative commons in relation to research visualizations

Content

The course consists of three parts corresponding to 5 credits. The course is based on the premise that visualization of research has the potential to be an integral part in data processing and theory development in the research fields of landscape architecture and environmental psychology. The relationship between humans and their physical surroundings is especially suited to communicate through visualizations and visualizations serve as a main way of working and communicating by architects, planners and designers. Further, in an interdisciplinary field such as this, visualizations play a special role by giving rise to a common language across disciplinary boundaries and thus bridging technical jargon used in different fields. Therefore, the special conditions for visualizations that prevail in the fields of landscape architecture and environmental psychology permeate the work throughout the course. In the first part, the PhD students read the course literature, study the examples of visualization from the literature list, and attend at an open research seminar focusing visualization in the fields of landscape architecture and environmental psychology. Issues concerning copyright and creative commons will also be highlighted at the seminar. The PhD students writes memos summarizing and reflecting upon the texts, the examples, and the seminar. Four general questions are to be answered:
\-What is the main message?
\-In what way does the literature/seminar exemplify visualizations in the research fields of landscape architecture and environmental psychology?
\-What strengths and weaknesses could be identified in the above-mentioned examples of visualizations?
\-What have you taken to heart and what can you benefit from in your own visualization of research, i.e., in what way do the examples contribute to your own research? If not at all, explain why. The first part concludes with a hand in, where the PhD students discuss the literature and visual examples. The second part begins with an experimental approach, where the PhD students first sketch by hand, and then use various visualization programs to try out research visualizations. The work should be related to the visual examples from the course literature as well as to visualizations the PhD students themselves have identified as relevant and inspiring in relation to their research work. The PhD students then create their own graphic designs for e.g. a research model or research concept, based on their own research. They also develop a graphical abstract to one of their own papers. The second part of the course ends with a hand in of a research visualization portfolio, containing the visualizations produced by the PhD student. In the third and final part of the course, each PhD student prepare and hold a 40+20 minute presentation and discussion at an open seminar for students and researchers in the fields of landscape architecture and environmental psychology. In the presentation, the PhD student should show and explain their research visualizations, both in terms of the research the visualizations stand for, as well as how the visualizations were developed in practical terms. The balancing of color/shape versus text/word in relation to the visualizations should also be described and discussed at the seminar. Above all, the focus should be on in what way the visualizations contribute to research within landscape architecture and/or environmental psychology, and how they clarify and communicate the central aspects of the PhD student’s research.

Additional information

Pedagogical form

Reading, writing, creating visualizations, presenting

Course leader and examiner

Anna Bengtsson (Senior Lecturer) & Jonathan Stoltz (Researcher), Department of People and Society

Responsible unit

The Department of People and Society.

Location

Responsible department

Department of People and Society