Data Physicalization

This Special Issue of IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications presents articles spanning a wide breadth of current data physicalization research, from theory to practice. Data physicalization is a physical artifact whose geometry or material properties encode data. Data physicalization has gained in popularity over a period of time, and it has grown outwards to include a broad spectrum of fields, including computer scientists, artists, designers, psychologists, and practitioners in human–computer interaction and information visualization. A demonstration of the breadth of the data physicalization field can be seen in the series of workshops that have been held at conferences, such as IEEE VIS, ACM CHI, ACM TEI, DRS, and at Dagstuhl. The community has explored the perceived benefits of data physicalization in the recent past and through this the popularity of the field has grown.