Presentation alters a viewers or audiences’ perception by HOW the information gathered is conveyed, as opposed to just conveying the matter itself. This effectively allows complex messages to be received by a greater audience through using various techniques, be they through a physical or virtual realm. For the sake of this explanation, and ease for the user, only digital examples will be made (how does that fare as a stab at presentation!?).
An example of effective presentation, is to appeal to a person’s understanding of what they already know, and elaborate on that one thing. If we were to understand the scale of size between say, the Earth and the Sun, we could easily say, the Sun is 1.3 million times the Earth’s volume, but do we really understand in that?
Yes, the Earth is big, and the sun is indeed larger. So by saying the Sun is 1.3 million times bigger than the Earth, all we gather is, THE SUN IS REALLY BIG. But what about when the comparison gets more complicated, like comparing the scale of the Sun to a star such as Betelguese (approximately one billion times the size of the Sun)? It goes beyond our sensory perception, as whilst we understand it is big, we are only comparing this bigness in a relative manner.
(Open this link in a new tab, watch, and then continue reading).
http://esokiasarts2090.tumblr.com/post/22579279250/a-little-perception-show-to-give-you-a-little-idea
A presentation such as this, showing a comparative 3D scale of each planet in our Solar System, and stars in neighbouring solar systems, aids in giving us a better understanding than simply saying 1,000,000,000 times bigger than the thing which was already 1,000,000 bigger than the Earth.
Similarly, presentation can be used to express something largely unseen, or perhaps, unnoticed. The understanding and mutual global acceptance that we’ve become a technocentric world (the Western and some developing worlds, anyway) is nothing new. However, visualise this with a 3D contextualisation of our interconnectivity, and a shocking new level of perception is founded, as the following diagrams of Canadian anthropologist Felix Pharand show:
Air traffic routes across North America and Europe - showing the ‘hubs’ that connect the world, such as London’s Heathrow, JFK in New York and Frankfurt.
Air traffic routes over Eurasia - just one of the technologies Felix Pharand Deschenes has mapped over a night-time view of our planet
Global map showing major road and rail networks over land, along with transmission line and underwater cable data superimposed over satellite images of cities illuminated at night.
The three satellite graphically contextualised images and quotes are sourced from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2051314/The-incredible-diagrams-human-technology-taken-surface-planet.html
As expressed above, whilst it is simple to say: X-amount of planes fly between Europe and America over a span of Y amount of days, by presenting this information is a visually stimulating manner, the same message is reached, on a more intense level.
I hope my small presentation has made you further understand how presentation is vital in achieving an better rounded perception of the world around. Using technology is an added bonus!
‘til next time.
