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Matthew Varona

@matthew.wiki

data, design, digital culture, birds PhD student at University of Toronto working on visualization/HCI/STS! they/them | https://matthew.wiki

8 Posts84 Follower174 Folgt
Matthew Kay@mjskay.com · 3mo ago

politicians want everyone to speak well of terrible people who died because many of them are terrible people who will die

Matthew Varona@matthew.wiki · 4mo ago

I'm at #FAccT2026 to talk about AI boyfriends! How do AI relationships start? How do people maintain these relationships in the face of OpenAI's guardrails and model updates? Come to our talk tomorrow morning to find out—and find us at the conference if you want a copy of our ZINE! Links and info 👇

The AI Boyfriends research team pictured around the ACM FAccT sign.The AI Boyfriends research team posing with our research zines!A stack of zines arranged around the ACM FAccT sticker.
Matthew Varona@matthew.wiki · last yr.

Unreasonably excited to present THEORY IS SHAPES at alt.vis this November! Read on to find out what the "BLT Sandwich Theory of Visualization Consumption" (and other shape-based shenanigans) can teach us about theorycrafting in research 🥪🧲🧊♾️

Matthew Kay@mjskay.com · last yr.

to appear at #alt.vis 2025: THEORY IS SHAPES sure "theory figures" are great, but @matthew.wiki, @maryamhed.bsky.social, me, and Carolina Nobre wonder: why always a 2D plane or a flowchart? why not icebergs, horseshoes, Möbius strips, or BLT sandwiches? arxiv.org/abs/2510.01382 #ieeevis #hci

Abstract and teaser figure of the paper "Theory is Shapes" by Matthew Varona, Maryam Hedayati, Matthew Kay, and Carolina Nobre. The teaser figure is an "iceberg" theory figure, showing four levels: the tip of the iceberg, containing a nested set diagram and a Cartesian plane. The next level down (just under the water) has a complicated flow charts and a combination flow chart and matrix. The next level down has the iceberg figure itself and a horseshoe. The final level contains a Möbius strip and a BLT sandwich. The abstract reads: "Theory figures" are a staple of theoretical visualization research. Common shapes such as Cartesian planes and flowcharts can be used not only to explain conceptual contributions, but to think through and refine the contribution itself. Yet, theory figures tend to be limited to a set of standard shapes, limiting the creative and expressive potential of visualization theory. In this work, we explore how the shapes used in theory figures afford different understandings and explanations of their underlying phenomena. We speculate on the value of visualizing theories using more expressive configurations, such as icebergs, horseshoes, Möbius strips, and BLT sandwiches. By reflecting on figure-making's generative role in the practice of theorizing, we conclude that theory is, in fact, shapes.
Frank Elavsky (he/him) ⌁@frank.computer · 2y ago

"How to make a good talk (and why are academics so bad at this)?" I wanted to give advice to an undergrad based on what I think is missing from (or wrong about) most advice out there on giving a talk. Would love to hear people's thoughts on this (especially academics hehe).

How to make a good talk (and why are academics so bad at this)?

Some guidance based on what I think a lot of academics fail to realize about what makes a good talk.

frank.computer

Dr. Casey Fiesler@cfiesler.bsky.social · 2y ago

Hi, so I've spent the past almost-decade studying research uses of public social media data, like e.g. ML researchers using content from Twitter, Reddit, and Mastodon. Anyway, buckle up this is about to be a VERY long thread with lots of thoughts and links to papers. 🧵

Daniel van Strien@danielvanstrien.bsky.social · 2y ago

First dataset for the new @huggingface.bsky.social @bsky.app community organisation: one-million-bluesky-posts 🦋 📊 1M public posts from Bluesky's firehose API 🔍 Includes text, metadata, and language predictions 🔬 Perfect to experiment with using ML for Bluesky 🤗 huggingface.co/datasets/blu...