Today's reading was about narrations of space and time. Putting these multiples together often results in info graphics that intertwine the map and time-series formats.
In the first example of these types of narrative graphics we were presented with Galileo's drawn observations of Jupiter's satellites. I found it interesting that Galileo not only used space-time drawings to record what he saw, but he also used a sequence of them to pull more data and conclusions out of what he had seen. By comparing the changes in each drawing, he was able to conclude that the starlets were actually orbiting Jupiter. Him and others than took this information and made accurate, moving 3d models of Jupiter's satellites as well as the whole solar system. These 3d models could even be considered a form of narrative information in physical form.
Another example we were given was a comparison of two map-schedule combination graphics. It was amazing to think that the second one, containing the railroads of China, held 200 pages worth of information. Even though the graphic was lacking in certain design areas, it was successful in showing geographical space.
The examples at the end of the chapter I found the most intriguing. These graphs contained data that either spilled off or did not fit into the rigid grid that contained the information. Although the article claims that William Playfair's choice to take outlying data and put it to the bottom of the graph was "ingenious," I find myself disagreeing. I suppose for at the time the graph was made, this was acceptable and necessary to keep the information legible. I feel though, that in our time with our technology, this would be unacceptable in a design. I think a designer these days would strive to find another answer to this design problem. Making the graph smaller would be the first go-to conclusion, and with today's high tech printing, the readability of the information would not be compromised.
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