From Exploration to Critique: Catalyzing Critical Inquiry With Cultural Collection Visualizations

This article examines whether visualizations in cultural heritage fields can move beyond their traditional roles of exploration and analysis to facilitate higher order cognitive processes central to the practice of “critique.” Drawing on arts and humanities perspectives, we define critical cognition as a mode of inquiry that explores and evaluates the potentiality of cultural objects and topics—and interrogates the associated representation and research systems that shape them—against the background of their actual state. We propose a framework for thinking about the critical potential of visualization systems and outline design strategies that enhance critical cognition and encourage responsive action. To that end, we examine multiple system components, including culture and context, collection practices, digital modeling, visualization, and research practices. We argue that by incorporating critical perspectives on these system components into interface design, we can empower users, foster more reflective and nuanced engagement with cultural collections, deepen understanding of their social, historical, and epistemic contexts, and ultimately strengthen trust in visualization methods within the arts and humanities.