The Picnic: the beginning

The Picnic: human ecology is the first section that was covered in this module and was therefore also the first step in approaching the concepts defined by Agile: architectures for the near future. The aim of this first section was both to introduce the module as a whole and to introduce the subject of human ecology. Human ecology outlines the interaction of humans with their environment, and more specifically their physical, spatial and temporal relationships with it. In particular the temporal element is fundamental to this section of the module as it acts as a measure by which the human ecology can be measured. This section can therefore also be considered time-based.
The study of The Picnic began both by the introduction to our Picnic project and the presentation of previous and related works that demonstrated ways of visualising interactions made over time. Some of these were directly related to human ecology while others were more generic, relating to ways of visualising information. In particular Edward Tufte and his works were highlighted as good guidance to what we were trying to achieve during our project and as general inspiration (for more information see The Picnic - time-based drawing). By introducing us to ways of dealing with information such as that used by Tufte this enabled us to better understand how to begin to approach the module, and helped to encourage us to think in a more abstract and dynamic way. Tufte’s work along with that of others acted as an initial influence to kick start our ideas and creativity, as well as being an important source to be able to refer to in the future.