LSDvis: Hallucinatory Data Visualisations in Real World Environments

TL;DR

LSDvis introduces a novel visualisation technique that blends real-world environments with data representations to create hallucinatory effects, aiming to enhance aesthetic appeal and contextual integration.

Contribution

This work pioneers the concept of hallucinatory data visualisations by integrating environmental elements with data visuals using generative models like Stable Diffusion.

Findings

Demonstrated LSDvis through a proof of concept using image modification.

Showcased how visual blending can produce immersive and quirky visualisations.

Discussed design considerations for aesthetic and contextual integration.

Abstract

We propose the concept of "LSDvis": the (highly exaggerated) visual blending of situated visualisations and the real-world environment to produce data representations that resemble hallucinations. Such hallucinatory visualisations incorporate elements of the physical environment, twisting and morphing their appearance such that they become part of the visualisation itself. We demonstrate LSDvis in a ``proof of proof of concept'', where we use Stable Diffusion to modify images of real environments with abstract data visualisations as input. We conclude by discussing considerations of LSDvis. We hope that our work promotes visualisation designs which deprioritise saliency in favour of quirkiness and ambience.