New Visual Hermeneutics

摘要

The digital humanities often generate research insights by interpreting data visualizations, yet the process of interpreting such visualizations is by no means self-evident. In this paper we present a new methodology for interpreting visualizations that aims at intersubjective acceptance. New visual hermeneutics is an integrated research framework that pays particular attention to the epistemology of visualizations. Adapting Don Ihde's experimental phenomenology, it addresses the research process as a whole, focusing on the impact of the entire sequence of four distinct steps or research decisions that culminate in a visualization: (1) data sampling, (2) algorithmic analysis of the sampled data, (3) selection of a visualization for algorithmic analysis, and (4) hermeneutic interpretation of the selected visualization.