Provocative: Ben Fry – ‘All Streets’
http://fathom.info/allstreets
Ben Fry’s ‘All Streets’ is a visualization of all the streets in the continental United States that looks like a topographical map.  Visualizing roads in this way might seem like it would just look like an unmarked map, however at this scale, the data reveals not only the topology of the United States, but also humanity’s relationship with the globe.  I think that Ben Fry’s  use of a very familiar data set to create a striking visualization represents a pinnacle of data art.

Interesting Data Set: Nand.io – ‘Identität: The Gestalt of Digital Identity’
http://www.nand.io/infosthetics/the-gestalt-of-digital-identity
‘Identität: The Gestalt of Digital Identity’ by Nand.io visualizes the digital identity of an individual in a physical format by combing online services for personal details to be used to dictate the composition of the structure.  I find the data sets interesting because they are personal, and reveal that the services that people use on the Internet have enough data about individuals to compose such complex structures.

Well-Crafted: Amanda Cox – ‘A Peek Into Netflix Queues’
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/01/10/nyregion/20100110-netflix-map.html?_r=0
Amanda Cox’s ‘A Peek Into Netflix Queues is a visualization of the popularity of films in different geographical regions.  While I don’t find the presentation to be particularly interesting or exciting, I want to recognize Amanda Cox’s work for consistently visualizing data in clean and thoughtful ways. I chose to this particular visualization because I think the data set is interesting.

Aside:
I have not seen any data art done with the “Megan’s Law” sex offender registries.  I think this is a really interesting data set in that there is a mixture of specificity and vagueness in the information that leads to a tremendous amount of terror.  There are images and exact locations present in the data, however the exact nature of the offense of each individual is not revealed. I have spent some time peering at photos of these sex offenders while trying to guess what their offense was.