alt.vis Workshop
Not all work that moves the field forward fits into the model of a standard conference paper or conference talk. The memorability or intellectual impact of work is often inextricably linked to this non-conventional form, whether it is a reflection, provocation, critique, satire, artistic statement, or manifesto. Successful venues like ACM CHI’s alt.chi ('a forum for controversial, risk-taking, and boundary pushing research at CHI') and various 'unconferences' have emerged in the past years as a way of providing an outlet for this sort of unconventional work.
Visualization, and IEEE VIS specifically, which incorporates perspectives in the intersection between art and design, statistics and psychology, we believe is uniquely placed to both generate and value the non-traditional. What's more, we have observed a long-running desire for an outlet for non-traditional work among both long-time attendees as well as those researchers or practitioners who do not currently feel welcome or appreciated in the IEEE VIS environment.
Therefore, based on the (often unexpected) utility of unconventional work, the long standing and successful models of 'alternative' conferences, and an expressed interest in bringing these models to the IEEE VIS community, we propose an “alt.VIS” workshop as avenue for work that is otherwise difficult to place in the main conference venues for reasons of form, format, or topic.
The remit of this workshop, mirroring alt.CHI, will be relatively broad both in terms of scope of topics and presentation types: our selection criteria are more focused on impact. What sort of work might cause the field to rethink its priorities or ways of operating? What work might highlight under-explored or neglected areas of visualization study or application? What, as per Kant, would 'interrupt [our] dogmatic slumber' and stir us to action?
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