arXiv subjects

Ignacio Pérez-Messina

Publications and source records attributed to Ignacio Pérez-Messina.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Santiago's A.T. Field: Visualizing Urban Accessibility through an Evangelion-Inspired Interface

Science-fiction interfaces are often reproduced for their appearance, and their diagnostic logic is rarely rebuilt around real data. Here we describe Santiago's A.T. Field, an interactive visualization of urban accessibility built from a diagnostic interface in Episode 13 of Neon Genesis Evangelion. We translated that interface in five stages: phenomenon, field, progression, interface, and response. A microscopic Angel became a relational urban problem, and a fictional scanning lattice became an accessibility field computed with the E2SFCA method. Every element of the fictional display is tied to a quantity of the model. Three tensions appeared when we made the fictional language operational: the saturated palette of the genre against color-vision deficiency, the motion of the genre against the reduced-motion preference, and the per-frame cost of the animation. The urgency of the fictional command center has its own cost, because emergency aesthetics can cast urban populations as threats. These three tensions are what the translation cost, and they are what transfers to other attempts of this kind.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2022

I Learn to Diffuse, or Data Alchemy 101: a Mnemonic Manifesto

In this manifesto, we put forward the idea of data alchemy as a narrative device to discuss storytelling and transdisciplinarity in visualization. If data is the prima materia of modern science, how does one perform the Great Work? We use text-to-image diffusion-based generative art to develop the concept, and structure our argument in ten propositions, as if they were ten issues of a comic novel on data alchemy: Ad Disco Diffusionem. To follow the argument, the reader must immerse themselves in our miro board, and navigate a multimedia semiotic topology that includes comics, videos, code demos, and ergotic literature in a true alchemic sense. By accessing this paradigm one might find new sources of inspiration for scientific inquiry in familiar places, or get lost in the creative exploration of the unknown. Our colorful, sometimes poetic, exposition should not distract the reader from the seriousness of the ideas discussed, but ultimately it is about the journey.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2021

Xenakis: Experimenting with Data, Cities, and Sounds

In this work, we report on the results and lessons learned from different disciplines while researching the loosely-defined problem of hearing a city. We present Xenakis, a tool for the musification of urban data, which is able to capture some features of a city's topology through the distribution of street orientations, and turn it into a (very) small piece of music, a loop, which can be used as building block for compositions. Besides providing complementary visual and auditory channels to interface with this data, we also allow the piping of \textit{midi} signals to other applications. This concept was developed by visualization researchers collaborating with musicians using design study methodologies in an open-ended way. Our results include musical tracks, and we take advantage of the scope of alt.VIS to communicate our research in a sincere, humorous, and engaging format.

cs.HC↗