Knowledge Base – Volume 2

130+ hand-picked open resources across 12 categories: datasets, tools, readings, and communities for data artists, researchers, and practitioners.

A curated directory of open resources for practitioners of data sonification and visualisation.


ALL CATEGORIES

Accessibility (6)

Articles (11)

Courses, workshops (4)

Datasets (17)

Data sonification (7)

Tools (13)

Online Blogs (15)

Books, magazines (26)

Events (8)

Newsletters (9)

Platforms (8)

Videos, talks, keynotes (14)


This directory grows
with the book.

Pre-order readers of Absent Data receive early access to this directory.

Pre-order the book →


Something missing?

If you have recently launched a new tool, book, or blog about data visualisation and would like to add it to this list, fill the form below with the name of your resource and its link.

Submit your resource →


hello@tizianaalocci.com


This directory grows
with the book.

Pre-order readers of Absent Data receive early access to this directory.

Pre-order the book →

ACCESSIBILITY


WebAIM
Web accessibility in mind

The A11y Project
Community-driven accessibility checklist

Viz Palette
Colour palette optimiser for data visualisation

Sim Daltonism
Colour-blindness simulator

Colour Contrast Analyser
Colour-contrast checker

Color Brewer
Colour palette maker

ARTICLES


COURSES, WORKSHOPS


Visualise Data in TouchDesigner
Online course, some experience required, run by Tiziana Alocci via NECESSITY.INK

From Data to Sound: Data Sonification Masterclass
Online course, some experience required, run by Tiziana Alocci via NECESSITY.INK

Introduction to Data Visualisation
Online course, beginners-friendly run by Tiziana Alocci via NECESSITY.INK

Intro to TouchDesigner
Online course, beginners-friendly, run by Tiziana Alocci via NECESSITY.INK

DATASETS


Our World in Data
Free, open access data on global issues

Kaggle Datasets
Community-shared machine learning datasets

Google Dataset
SearchSearch engine for open datasets

UN Data
United Nations statistical databases

World Bank
Open DataGlobal development indicators

Data.gov
US government open data portal

Eurostat
European Union statistical data

NASA Earthdata
Earth science datasets from NASA

NOAA Climate Data
Climate and weather records

Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Open biodiversity occurrence data

Humanitarian Data Exchange
Open data for humanitarian crises

London Data Store
Open data about London

Office of National Statistics (ONS)

ProPublica Data Store

Census Bureau

World Health Organization (WHO)

Nasa Open Portal

DATA SONIFICATION


Data Sonyfier
Browser-bases sonification tool

TwoTone
Browser-bases sonification tool

Data Sonification Archive
Collections of data sonifications

Sonic Tides Sonification
Noise pollution made visible

The Sound of Visa Inequality
Visa rejection rates turned into a melody

DATASONICA
Turning a building into an orchestra (environmental data sonification)

NASA Sonification Hub
Astronomical data as sound

TOOLS


Flourish
No-code data visualisation and storytelling

Datawrapper
Charts and maps for journalists and researchers

Observable
Collaborative data notebook environment

RAWGraphs
Open-source data visualisation framework

Gephi
Network and graph visualisation tool

QGIS
Free and open-source geographic information system

Palladio
Humanities data visualisation from Stanford

D3.js
JavaScript library for bespoke visualisations

Vega-Lite
High-level grammar for interactive graphics

Chart.js
Simple yet flexible JavaScript charts

TouchDesigner
Audiovisual tool for realtime visual

Flow Fields by Tyler Hobbs

Voyant

ONLINE BLOGS


Flowing Data
Nathan Yau on data visualisation and statistics

Nightingale, DVS
Journal of the Data Visualisation Society

The Functional Art
Alberto Cairo on visualisation and infographics

Visualising Data
Andy Kirk on best practices in dataviz

Information is Beautiful
David McCandless's celebrated data design studio

Storytelling with Data
Cole Nussbaumer-Knaflic on clear communication

Eager Eyes
Robert Kosara on visualisation research

Multiple Views
Visualisation research made accessible

The Pudding

Information is beautiful

Storybench

Creative Applications

Data Visualisation with Textiles

Activation Atlas

The People's Graphic Design Archive

BOOKS, magazines


Absent Data — Tiziana Alocci
A book exploring absent and invisible data

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information — Tufte
The seminal text on data graphics

The Functional Art — Alberto Cairo
Introduction to information visualisation

Data Visualisation — Andy Kirk
A handbook for data driven design

Storytelling with Data — Cole Knaflic
A data visualisation guide for business professionals

Dear Data — Lupi & Posavec
Hand-drawn data postcards exchanged across the Atlantic

How Charts Lie — Alberto Cairo
Getting smarter about visual information

The Truthful Art — Alberto Cairo
Data, charts, and statistical thinking

W.E.B. Du Bois's Data Portraits — Edited Battle-Baptiste & Rusert
Visualising Black America from 1900

Data Feminism — D'Ignazio & Klein
A new way of thinking about data science and ethics

Semiology of Graphics — Jacques Bertin

Metropolitan World Atlas — Arjen van Susteren

Beautiful Evidence — Edward Tufte

Visualizing Data: Exploring and Explaining Data with the Processing Environment — Ben Fry

Information Design Workbook — Jill Vacarra and Kim Baer

Visual Complexity: Mapping Patterns of Information — Manuel Lima

Infographics Designers Sketchbooks — Steven Heller and Rick Landers

Design and Redesign in Data Visualisation — F. Viégas & M. Wattenberg

Market Cafe Magazine
The world’s first magazine about data visualisation

Data&Eggs
Curated collection of data storytelling

Soundscape, The tuning of the world — R. Murray Schafer

The Poetics of Space — Gaston Bachelard

Ways of Seeing — John Berger

Design as Art — Bruno Munari

Da Cosa Nasce Cosa — Bruno Munari

Questions in Dataviz — Neil Richards

EVENTS


IEEE VIS
Premier venue for visualization research

OpenVis Conf
Practitioner conference on open visualisation

Data Visualisation Society Meetups
Global community-run visualisation events

Tapestry Conference
Storytelling with data, annual event

NACIS Annual Meeting
North American Cartographic Information Society

Information+ Conference
Multidisciplinary design and information conference

Outlier Conference — DVS
Annual gathering of the Data Visualisation Society

Creative Data Summit
Creative direction and data design talks

NEWSLETTERS


Data is Plural
Jeremy Singer-Vine's weekly dataset newsletter

Chartr
Data-driven stories in your inbox

The Pudding Newsletter
Essays in visual journalism

Observable Newsletter
Dataviz notebooks and community highlights

Data Elixir
Weekly data science newsletter

Nightingale Weekly — DVS
Data Visualization Society weekly roundup

Technically
Tech journalism with data

One Chart at a Time
Bite-sized chart critique and inspiration

The Art of The Process
All the behind the scene of data-art installations and research

PLATFORMS


Observable
Community notebooks for data analysis and visualization

Kaggle
Data science competitions and collaboration

Info Data by Il Sole 24 Ore

The Upshot by The New York

TimesLes Décodeurs by Le Monde

The Chart Doctor by Financial Times

Graphic Detail by The Economist

Visual complexity

videos, talks, keynotes


TEDx, How sound data can recreate lost memories — Tiziana Alocci

TED, See how the rest of the world lives, organised by income — Ana Rosling

The Joy of Stats — Hans Rosling

TED 3 ways to spot a bad statistic — Mona Chalabi

TED, The best stats you've ever seen — Hans Rosling

Journalism in the Age of DataGeoff McGhee

TEDxBoise Why everyone should be data literateJordan Morrow

TEDxZurich Listening to data from the Large Hadron ColliderLily Asquith

Art made of data (TED Playlist)

Sonification for Geoscience: Turning data into soundKaren Mair

Chandra X-ray Observatory, Supernova 1987

A Sonification RythmeticN. McLaren & E. Lambart (1956)

Powers of TenCharles & Ray (1977)

Repetition, M. Cooper, video Kevin McGloughlin (2019)