Se a rc hing fo r Wisd o m. Exp e rime nting with visua liza tio n using the DIKW mo d e l 1 SEARCHING FOR WISDOM. EXPERIMENTING WITH VISUALIZATION USING THEDIKW MODEL Gaia Scagnetti¹ ¹C o mmDe , De p a rtme nt o f Ind ustria l De sig n, Fa c ulty o f Arc hite c ture , C hula lo ng ko rn Unive rsity, Ba ng ko k g a ia .sc a g ne tti@ g ma il.c om ABSTRAC T: The last 10 years have been a time of experimentation, research and intense discussion in the discipline of Information Visualization. A fundamental notion for this discipline is the Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom hierarchy. Even if at the top of this model, Wisdom is typically put aside: the DIKW has often become DIK. Representing and visualizing Wisdom presents cultural constrains and posed conceptual challenges. This paper presents the results of a three years research on the possible relevance of the DIKW model applied in the context of Communication Graphic Design education. It investigates how the DIKW can provide a relevant framework to help student in understanding the difference between data visualization, information visualization, knowledge visualization and wisdom visualization. Instead of reducing the model to DIK we purposely challenge students to reflect on the concept of Wisdom and experiment on possible ways of visualizing it. Addressing the concept of Wisdom visualization is an attempt to push the boundaries of this discipline toward a deeper understanding of the quality of data we visualize. 1. INTRO DUC TIO N Communication Design is a broad discipline with undefined boundaries. In the design of Visual Communication practitioners are confronted with few evident constraints if compared with other fields: production methods are long-established, experimentation is often well received and the fairly universal nature of its languages presents less restricting contextual constrains. Nevertheless, there are still territories that have been avoided for their innate complexity and have not been investigated because of the cultural challenge they present. Visual languages possess an undeniable communicative power: they are able to condense complex knowledge, to facilitate comprehension and are highly engaging. The recent capillary diffusion of the use of visual languages has provided new understanding of an additional function. Visualizations can be not only considered as communication devices but more importantly can work as tools to explore and investigate phenomena (Scagnetti 2011). The last 10 years have been a time of experimentation, research and intense discussion in the discipline of Information Visualization (C. Chen 2002; Scagnetti 2012). In particular the distinction between Data, Information and Knowledge visualization has generated great debate (M. Chen et al. 2009; Lau and Moere 2007; Chi 2000). Numerous attempts to cluster and classify visualization techniques have been done (Lohse et al. 1994; Shneiderman 1996; Tory and Moller 2004; Wehrend and Lewis 1990) in order to generate a more clear understanding of their potential. Lengler and Eppler (2007) provided an overview over more than hundred visualization methods of by organizing them in a periodical table to assists researchers and practitioners alike in choosing adequate visualization methods for their needs. Lau and Vande Moere (2007) proposed an Information Aesthetic model that shows information aesthetics’ focus on the three issues of: representing abstract data, providing an interactive interface, and using