Looking Outwards 07: Information Visualization

I chose to look at Flight Patterns by Aaron Koblin. This visualization of the flight data over North America was interesting to me because of how non-geometric it is. The closer you zoom into the maps, the more mycelial the shape of the flight paths become. I think we commonly believe that planes move from point A to point B along a straight line, but as we look at this map, it’s clear that that image is incorrect. I think for me it’s the mycelial nature of these flight paths, having nexuses and crisscrossing to create this intricate web that I find really intriguing. Such nonlinear patterns replete with random elements always fascinate me. The algorithms seem fairly simple and easy to understand. A flight path is charted from its beginning to its end, its x and y coordinates (latitude and longitude) mapped out using point based lines. It’s just an interesting exploration of randomness to me.