Science, Art, and Visual Communication

Visual representations are an imperative and integral part of understanding and developing new scientific concepts, and often serve as the primary evidence supporting the claims of a scientific idea. This talk explores the way we look at scientific data, why some representations are better than others, and what you can do to achieve clarity, accuracy and aesthetic appearance in a visual representation that will represent your scientific data in the best possible way. It is a demanding and far from straightforward task to produce good images, and we have to take it seriously. By looking at the use and influence of image technologies, art and simple design principles in the creative process of scientific imaging it is discussed how to advance visual communication and demonstrated how great visual representations can increase public understanding of science.