As visitors to Sant Ocean Hall listen to a three-minute narration, the yellow currents fade and deeper currents emerge, a mass of vibrating red "streaklets." Unlike surface waters, which are driven by the wind, these deeper coherent currents--like the Gulf Stream and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current--run about 100 meters below the surface, perpetual spirals of motion that Ware describes as "independent but interrelated processes." The deepest ocean, five miles down--slow-moving masses of water that haven't seen the surface in as many as 1,800 years--are portrayed in blue. This watery globe, a luminous drama of shimmering color, is Ware's masterpiece.
"It's like painting with light," he says, describing a process that involves the click of a mouse, the touch of a screen and the strategic dumping of virtual dye pots into various ocean currents. "That's what's so fun about it," says Ware, who spent a few years after graduate school pursuing his love of painting, still a favorite pastime. "You get to blend all these colors," he says. What visitors won't see, in the midst of this impressionistic painting in motion, is the common misconception that ocean currents run in one continuous ribbon around the globe. "Hopefully the exhibit will give people an understanding that the oceans are connected, but in complex ways," says Ware of the project he developed in conjunction with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Ware, who directs CCOM's Data Visualization Research Lab, specializes in three-dimensional interactive visualization systems for ocean mapping. His expertise in computer science translates into a limitless capacity for design--he simply creates whatever tools he needs. "If I can imagine it, I can create it," he says. But what really sets him apart is his understanding of human perception--in particular, the way people see color, texture and movement. "Understanding why people see things they way they do helps us create more effective designs," says Ware, who has a doctorate in the psychology of perception and has used this knowledge to write two books aimed at helping designers better illustrate scientific data. He has also published more than 120 articles and developed data visualization software that is used around the world, all in an effort to help researchers get a better look at their data. Along the way, he has mastered the art of depicting invisible forces, painting motion and movement to create a more colorful, detailed and meaningful view of planet Earth. ~