this workshop was very interesting, understanding and becoming aware of the main benefits and downfalls of pie, area, bar and line graphs.
It was a fast turnaround in the realisation that charts of such manner are very limited in the way they can or indeed cannot objectively present certain variables within data. None the less when dealing with 3 or less variables i think this is when they come in to their own. And only if the values of are at least similar scaling and relation……really in terms of information design, i think personally they can only help one deconstruct information at first but they are not relevant for mass human consumption..
and thus i believe we are entering an age which the likes of john maeda and edward tufte have been harping on about entering for a longg time… ‘escaping flat lands’
As all the best theorist say its the mediums that you deal with that are the real carriers of information, the likes of marshall mcluhen and kenya hara are bastions of such messages, or at least offer portals of explanation into the way we should deal with ANY information be it within the form of pre made data or indeed a collection of found objects or patterns ( by patterns i mean a regular and intelligible form or sequence discernible in certain actions or situations).
The way in which information is structured and relayed, in form and aesthetic, i believe in making what
andrew blauvelt
was talking about on design observer this week, RELATIONAL DESIGN .
This breaks all notions that information, of any sort be it langugage in the form audio, spoken , smybols maths, music, science, visual language what ever…..shall have a pre-determined, default form or way of looking at something. instead of relying on other contexts, create your own and thus becoming more profound and engaging…
relative to the doctrine of the episteme, by Michel Foucault, the ideas of not letting what you believe to currently know, or are believe to be currently aware of, suggesting the possibilities that this limits your mindset even when trying to further your ideas even beliefs of categorisation and order
Now back to charts, chart can be a term to present an idea which is almost like a blueprint for a realisation of representation. So i say, do not take charts as a literal way of representing information, its a ladder to understanding the bigger picture.
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