Data Visualisation for Food: Mapping the Territory

What we eat and how we eat has been communicated over time through different forms, strategies and objects, creating a diverse field with cultural, social and economic roots. Visualisation is recognised as a tool that facilitates understanding in complex, abstract and invisible contexts, involving a dedicated research and practice domain. How can data visualisation improve the understanding of food-related data? This paper's purpose is to analyse and explore Data Visualisation for Food through selected projects that provide diverse reading experiences and different outcomes in the communicated message, combined into an analysis model, which considers multiple contributions and authors in order to expose how visualisations are developed taking into account the nature and organisation of the information and the communication goals. The model is tested with three case studies: The Rhythm of Food, (2016); Data Cuisine, (2012); and El Sabor de la Data (2022). The case studies analysis enlight the selection and information organisation methodology which depends on, and is conditioned, by the data associated with the project, just as the visualisation's purpose controls the type of experience that is provided to the reader. The reading message's experiences, the methodology for organising information, the data typology and visual encoding are essential to determine the visualisation's nature in food-related projects.