Network Team

Students

Lulu Pinney is the PhD student on Project 1: Developing Visualisation Literacy, based at the University of Sheffield. She has been designing datavis and infographics for the last ten years and training others to do the same for the last five. She’s now looking forward to studying the same subject but from the other side of the desk, investigating what the experience is really like for people on the receiving end of graphics.

Jill Sampson is the PhD student on Project 2: Engaging Diverse Users in Visualisation Production and Evaluation, based at the University of York. Jill combines her academic background in Sociology with an interest in design, in particular how visual practices might be used to communicate sociological ideas to a wider audience. As she explores user engagement with data visualisations, Jill hopes to put what she learns into practice by developing qualitative data visualisations to disseminate her findings.

Arran Ridley is the PhD student on Project 3: Measuring Visualisation Engagement, based at the University of Leeds. Arran comes from a background in design and animation. He has also worked within a number of colleges and charities, particularly within the SEN sector. With his background in design and education he is looking at honing his expertise and investigating the possibilities afforded by the potential of capturing and understanding people’s engagement with data visualisations.

Supervisors

David Beer is one of the supervisors in the network. He is Reader in Sociology at the University of York. His work has predominantly focused on the relations between culture and new media forms. Over the last few years he has been exploring the changes brought about by new forms of data and metrics.

Chris Birchall is one of the supervisors in the network. He is a Lecturer in New Media in the School of Media and Communication, University of Leeds. With a background in computer science and extensive experience in professional digital media production, his current research interests include the relationship between digital technologies, interpersonal communication and citizenship.

Paul Clough is one of the supervisors in the network. His research interests focus on developing effective retrieval technologies that support users as they seek to fulfil their information needs. He has carried out research in the areas of multilingual search, retrieval of images, geo-spatial search, analysis of transaction logs, text re-use and plagiarism detection, and the evaluation of search systems.

Alex Hall is one of the supervisors in the network. She researches fthe international securitisation of mobility and contemporary border politics in the west, drawing on interdisciplinary work from international relations, anthropology and critical security and border studies.

Rosemary Lucy Hill is one of the supervisors in the network. She researches gender, big data and popular music. Her PhD (Centre for Women’s Studies, York) looked at the representations and experiences of women hard rock and metal music fans. She has just written a book, Gender, Metal and the Media, (Palgrave) to be published in 2016. She is interested in uses of data visualisation in feminist activism.

Helen Kennedy is the network director, as well as one of the supervisors in the network. She is Professor of Digital Society at the Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield. She has lots of experience researching different aspects of digital media in everyday life, including data visualisation.

Partners

Thomas Clever is one of the network partners. He is one of the network partners. He is the co-founder and creative director of CLEVER°FRANKE, a design agency that combines strategy, design and technology to create data driven tools and experiences that enable change. We collaborate with forward thinking clients, such as Google, Philips, Here and Wired magazine, exploring the wealth of data at hand and designing cutting edge ways to bring value to the surface.

Andy Kirk is one of the network partners. He is a data visualisation specialist, a freelance design consultant, trainer, blog editor, researcher and author. He is also a visiting lecturer at MICA (US) and Imperial College (UK).