Dario Rodighiero is an Assistant Professor of Science and Technology Studies at the University of Groningen, where he serves the multidisciplinary Campus Fryslân.
There, Dario coordinates Data Wise for introducing students to applied data science in real-world problems, while also teaching data and visual literacy within the Bachelor’s program in Data Science and Society.
There, Dario coordinates Data Wise for introducing students to applied data science in real-world problems, while also teaching data and visual literacy within the Bachelor’s program in Data Science and Society.
Maintaining affiliations with Harvard University, he is a principal at metaLAB, and holds a position as a faculty associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society.
Dario relies on design, data, and humanities to map digital archives to understand the nature of cultural and scientific dynamics. His approach bridges gaps between diverse fields, acting as a mediator for interdisciplinary initiatives.
With Metis Press, he authored Mapping Affinities: Democratizing Data Visualization, offering a fresh take on the way we visualize and interpret organizational charts.
EPFL awarded him a Ph.D. in Science. Over the years, he has held positions at MIT, Sciences Po, and the European Commission, has lectured at CERN and Ars Electronica, and has exhibited at MAXXI and Harvard Art Museums.
EPFL awarded him a Ph.D. in Science. Over the years, he has held positions at MIT, Sciences Po, and the European Commission, has lectured at CERN and Ars Electronica, and has exhibited at MAXXI and Harvard Art Museums.
Linking Theory and Practice of Digital Libraries
2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-72437-4_8
2024
Mapping Techniques for an Automated Library Classification: The Case Study of Library Loans at Bibliotheca Hertziana
Casey, Hannah Laureen, Alessandro Adamou, and Dario Rodighierohttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-72437-4_8
This paper introduces an innovative analytical method for visualising research libraries, overcoming the limitations of the assumptions made by their classification systems. The approach combines user loan data with deep mapping techniques to graphically display usage patterns and thematic clusters. Dimensionality reduction is used to visualise the catalogue by book loans, and prompt engineering with large language models is used to describe loan clusters with detailed summaries and titles. This approach was applied to the library collection owned by Bibliotheca Hertziana, a renowned research institute for art history based in Rome. The final output was assessed by a group of experts through interviews supported by an atlas providing statistical information on clusters. This yielded promising results towards a more general framework for visually mapping textual collections and capturing their transformation and usage from an interdisciplinary perspective.
Journal of Digital History
2024
https://doi.org/10.1515/JDH-2023-0004
2024
Super-Vision: Tracing EPFL History Through 8,000 Doctoral Theses
Rodighiero, Dario, Philippe Rivière, and Sarah Kenderdinehttps://doi.org/10.1515/JDH-2023-0004
The fiftieth anniversary of EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) offered the opportunity to retrace its history through the digital archives housed by the institute itself. Part of the exhibition Infinity Room 2, the Super-Vision project investigates the practice of academic advising by visualizing 8,000 doctoral theses in a work at the intersection of art, science, and technology. Inaugurated in September 2019 at EPFL Pavilions, Super-Vision presents a diachronic mapping that uses artificial intelligence to shed light on an institutional dataset that would be unobservable otherwise. To achieve such a goal, 8,000 doctoral theses are analysed with natural language processing and mapped with techniques of dimensionality reduction, combining language and time within in an interactive visualization accessible to the public. The project title has a twofold meaning: on the one hand, it refers to the educational practice that connects doctoral students to supervisors; on the other hand, it employs information design like a macroscope to grasp complex phenomena from a distant standpoint. The result offers EPFL employees and museum visitors an original perspective to look at the institute with different eyes.
Visual Communication
2024
https://doi.org/10.1177/14703572241248408
2024
In Praise of Visual Representation: An Inquiry into Text Analysis and Network Visualization for Charting Scientific Communities
Rodighiero, Dariohttps://doi.org/10.1177/14703572241248408
This article provides a visual investigation into scientific communities through the lens of language. Inspired by actor-network theory, the study examines how individuals establish connections through shared vocabularies and, consequently, how communities organize themselves into linguistic groups. Using scientific texts to map the lexical dimension, the premise posits that research communities can be visually represented by their members and the words they employ, favouring the comprehension of social structures. The research draws from a decade-long personal experimentation with language-based visual models, to explore how research communities appear according to their lexicon, in which each individual is intricately intertwined. Employing cutting-edge techniques of text analysis and network visualization, the study analyses, organizes and maps scientific communities, clustering individuals into thematic groups based on their language use. The findings are presented through a series of projects that delve into the analytical power of images and unveil novel visual methods to better understand the spatial dynamics of language and communities.
