To appear in an IEEE VGTC sponsored conference. Feral data visualization: A manifesto for cultivating livable worlds with visual sensemaking practices Cathryn Ploehn * Carnegie Mellon University Molly Steenson † Carnegie Mellon University Daragh Byrne ‡ Carnegie Mellon University Figure 1: An old growth hemlock tree’s roots (left), known for sharing nutrients among fellow hemlocks, and a visualization (right)— inspired by hemlock roots’ communal solidarity—that represents a (human) community’s vivaciousness ABSTRACT Feral data visualization is a posture offering theories and practices for designing data visualizations for collaborative survival in the midst of ecological and social turmoil. Feral data visualization demands an embrace of situated, embodied, vegetized, and feral forms of visual pattern making that might allow us to take up the task of building livability in our surrounding ecologies and communities. We demonstrate how these imperatives might unfold in practice through Tsuga Convictio, a research through design project. Feral data visualization calls designers to action, outlining three paths for crafting data visualizations for the feminine, vegetal, and embodied. Keywords: data visualization, ecology, forests, storytelling, femi- nism, plurality, ontology, community, conversation, data dramatiza- tion, art Index Terms: Human-centered computing—Visualization—Visu- alization techniques; Human-centered computing—Visualization— Visualization design and evaluation methods 1 THE TASK AT HAND IS TO MAKE LIVABLE WORLDS WITH SENSEMAKING TOOLS BEYOND IMMEDIATE GRASP In the face of climate destruction and civilizational turmoil, the task at hand is to make livable worlds on a wounded planet [10,22]. Em- bedded in this task are key shifts in Western settler cultures: from an- thropocentric autopoiesis towards holobionts and sympoiesis, from a posture of extraction towards one of collaboration, and from de- tached rationality towards response-ability. These shifts are ongoing and entangled with feminist, anti-racist, LGBTQ+ rights, disabil- ity rights, decolonializing, and other intersecting anti-oppression movements cultivated by humans. * e-mail: ploehn.cathryn@gmail.com † e-mail: steenson@cmu.edu ‡ e-mail: daraghb@andrew.cmu.edu For Haraway, livable worlds require us to turn away from the ra- tionality and autopoiesis of anthropocentrism, towards the idea that “human beings are with and of the earth” and the “...powers of this earth are the main story;” rethinking ourselves as holobionts [10]. Humans only live through collaborations, relying upon each other to make the planet livable. As opposed to extracting from organisms in and around us, we must de-estrange ourselves in collaborations for survival with our neighbors (non-human and more), or sympoiesis. Material practices for de-estrangement means becoming familiars with the non-human: microbiomes, birds, weeds, and so on. Sym- poesis means we can only survive with (often unusual) partners; we “become-with each other”—or, “not at all” [10] We must discover collaborations with organisms, non-human and more; we must make kin to survive. Instead of detached rationality, we must cultivate the collective ability to observe, feel, and act in response to danger, a visceral response-ability. Response-ability, as characterized by Haraway, is necessary because it is our capability for building livable worlds [10]. In particular, cultivating response-ability requires at least three moves. First, response-ability in collaboration with many bodies only has purchase if the knowledge is situated and embodied, instead of detached and logical. Knowledge is embodied is in the feminist sense: situated in organism, time and space, and only meaningful if resonating with the body, and interrogated through the lens of power [6,9]. A situated take on knowledge also affords us to un- derstand the limits of our perspective, opening possibilities for ever changing response-ability in ever-changing circumstances negoti- ated by ever-changing bodies. Situated knowledges resonate with Watt’s articulation of indigenous idea of Place-Thought:, in which land and thought are untangleable and intertwined [23]. Second, collective response-ability is woven together by belong- ing: the feeling of interconnectedness, nourished by humans through intimate conversation [2, 4, 25]. In fostering belonging we set our- selves towards caring for one another in our collaborations; love as praxis in making possible free, livable worlds [11, 14]. Belonging fuels the fire of kin and community, in practices that de-estrange us through building trust and coalescing our hearts and minds to act and respond together. 1