If you actually look at the sample output of the library, there's nothing out of focus, at least from the perspective of depth of field. In my opinion (and it is just an opinion), calling all de-emphasized data bokeh is a stretch at best. Blurring and de-emphasis using color and size are two different things.
>> Portrait photos are often beautiful when the lens has good bokeh characteristics.
Let's be clear -- while bokeh can enhance the beauty of a portrait, it doesn't make a portrait beautiful. Most people don't know the difference between good bokeh and bad bokeh (pwang's definition of bokeh in his response to me is very good), but they can usually identify a blurred background vs. a sharp background.
Many people tend to prefer a sharp subject against a blurred background, and that's usually enough for most people to consider a portrait beautiful even if the bokeh is quite ugly. Without getting into a long drawn out discussion of bokeh, you have to remember that there's also more to a beautiful portrait than the novelty of a blurred background.
We are working on the semantic downsampling and perceptual integration aspects of visualizing large data. This currently lives in its own repo: https://github.com/JosephCottam/AbstractRendering
> calling all de-emphasized data bokeh is a stretch at best
It's really just meant to be an evocative metaphor... :-)
With the 0.3 release out now, I'm focusing on building hooking up the abstract rendering backend for the plot server, so just keep an eye out.
Gotcha - me not liking a name is just my own personal opinion. The library itself is interesting.
You can't please everyone all of the time. ;)