Information Design ~ Day 7 After some number jockeying, I believe the reading assignment number once again is consistent to the days class number – all the stars are aligned and the world is right again! Coincidently, this day’s reading deals with “trusted” things that may be fraudulent… so reader beware.
Bethany Armstrong has given has given her class a reprint of a short yet poignant rant to review. In the excerpt from Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design, author Michael Bierut gives us his wit and insight on the “gullibility” of a trusting society. His example of 2,500 intentionally installed non-working crosswalk buttons on New York City’s light poles is frightening to consider. Fake “close door” elevator buttons and bogus security system facades go against all that we have been taught as a virtuous culture.
Now, I think we are all innately trust worthy. We know who we are … inside. Or at least I know who I am inside. So, in turn I then naturally project my core values and ethics on those around me as being the universally accepted norm. We’re all basically the same and want everything to be just swell… right? This concentric circle of assumption is repeated over and over by each and every one of us. We all think that our “norm” is the correct norm. We search out and find like minded people to hang with and share in the comfort of like mindedness. All of these circles of “individuals” swirling around, making up the basis of our society – dare say, humanity. And at the middle of all of this is this innate trust thing. Without it society is lost. So we cling to it. Our strength is our weakness. Innocent until proven guilty is our legal basis. Fool me once shame on me, fool me twice – shame on you is our practice.
So- how do all of these psychological proliferations of mine come in to relevance with today’s reading and class content? Well, I think we all just want to believe. Believe until being burned, and then burned again a few more times. Bierut sights several examples in his essay on the innocence of trust within our society and the ease in which we as a people are swayed and duped. His quick, sharp observations immediately expose everyone’s natural desire to coexist in a cohesive society. Now lop on information design. Hugh? In the context of today’s lesson, one could leap to the conclusion that people want to believe what they see - especially if it is packaged and delivered in a believable form. From the placebo button on a traffic pole to the AGENDA in a chart – people, at first glance will unconsciously want to take it at face value. Over time and with experience, these same viewers may grow weary of empty promises and unfulfilled expectations.
So maybe it should be designer beware – “smoke and mirrors” will only work for so long. Information Design at its core is a trust – delivering communications from one person to another.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Paul-A-R07
As the other side of the coin to “meaningless information to assuage… anxiety” there is also meaningful information that gives people a false sense of security. I am thinking of statistical information I read recently in Time magazine regarding the recent tornadoes that have hit the United States. Although prognostication of these storms has improved from 1953 to the point that warnings of impending tornadoes can now be given 15 minutes prior to an actual occurrence versus a few minutes in 1953, the number of deaths attributed to the storms has not decreased, this also despite the fact that most storm prone regions have emergency plans and shelters for such situations. Apparently, people are just not taking precautions when the warnings are given. Some people even take the warning as an invitation to find an advantageous place to view the storm. The same situation has been occurring with people who climbed to the tops of levees in order to view the flooding Mississippi river. The held opinion seems to be that if we can understand these elements to the point of predicting them, we can also control them. Of course, these are the same people who look for someone to sue after they get injured due to their own stupidity.
Crosswalk signs are another good example. Despite the campaign of a few years back to mark all pedestrian crossings with bright yellow signs in place of the old dull yellow ones, you would be foolish to enter one of those crosswalks believing that drivers of automobiles are going to stop while you are in the crosswalk (well, maybe on Hartford Avenue or Kenwood Avenue near UWM, but nowhere else.) The same can be said of the recently added bicycle crossing signs on bike trails. Unless some effort is made to prosecute people who violate these rules of the road, the signs are just window dressing giving people a false sense of security.
Crosswalk signs are another good example. Despite the campaign of a few years back to mark all pedestrian crossings with bright yellow signs in place of the old dull yellow ones, you would be foolish to enter one of those crosswalks believing that drivers of automobiles are going to stop while you are in the crosswalk (well, maybe on Hartford Avenue or Kenwood Avenue near UWM, but nowhere else.) The same can be said of the recently added bicycle crossing signs on bike trails. Unless some effort is made to prosecute people who violate these rules of the road, the signs are just window dressing giving people a false sense of security.
Hyrom-S-R07
Perfection, perfection, perfection, when one is given an assignment that pertains to the safety of another I believe the task should be completed with perfection. Why? I feel this way because the next man’s/woman’s safety should be a concern to the next citizen if we want the continuation of harmony. Unity is a goal of every city representative, from the governor down to a child. As matters of fact, I live near a walk button light signal and it rarely works, probably one out of a hundred. Therefore, the pedestrians always cross the street when they are not supposed to. Do the city officials, whom I feel don’t care anyway; expect us to wait all the day long. I don’t think so. This is ridiculous. I have a question. Is the city of Milwaukee’s sense of security really confident? I don’t think so because the probability of accidents is always high and its decrease is never ensured. I guess no one really care anymore. I’ve had enough of this mentality. Why are our politicians in office again? Someone help me out. Wake up these city officials and tell them to get on their jobs and ensure the security of this state. I have been hit by a car twice in my lifetime and that’s enough to convince me to fight back. I am not going to be hit by a car because of some faulty street light. Accidents can be prevented sometimes and this is an excellent case of this prevention opportunity. Love thy neighbor as thyself, that’s what God said, but this state don’t care about what God says anymore any way. Every man for himself, or every woman for herself? Survival of the fittest? Yeah right, the people of today don’t have the heart for this kind of mentality. Therefore, let us work together to ensure everyone’s safety. We can begin by eliminating preventable faults.
Rachel+H+R06
Arraying Words and Arrows in Art Historical 2-Space by Alfred Barr and How to Look at Art in America by Ad Reinhardt are, in my opinion, two of the most interesting information diagrams that I have seen. I spent more time looking at and decoding these two charts than I did reading the whole chapter. These pieces really inspired me and for the first time I am starting to get excited about info graphs and their endless creative possibilities. When I sat down to construct my own graph based on my personal timeline of all of the college courses I've taken, I could not come up with a refreshing graphic or interesting way to display my information so I just made a simple bar graph. Now, after seeing these two examples I am ready to start on my final project and try to create an art piece that is visually appealing yet also contains data arranged in a way that is easy to understand. My approach to our first graph was very much unlike the style I use in my art and I would like to bring the two together for my final project.
While looking at Arraying Words I was a bit confused about the different arrows, why some lines were red and others were black, 2 lines are dashed and the rest solid. Even though I didn't understand completely what was being displayed I was still excited to uncover the information, maybe this is because I am interested in the data itself presented. After hand drawing out my own chart (and making several mistakes that cause you to have to start over) I can't even image how many drafts there are of this piece. Upon examination of the lines and arrows, the author brought to light a valid point when he stated, “Depicted by single-headed arrows, causality flows just one way without the back-and-forth possibilities of mutual influence in art.” Art sometimes moves one step forward two steps back, it can't possibly only go in one direction and perhaps this diagram would be even more successful if there was some more diversity in the lines and arrows to create a richer dialog.
As for How to Look at Art in America, I was pleased with the humor that was incorporated in this piece. Graphs can be interactive and can contain several layers, depending on the viewer's knowledge of the subject being presented. I enjoyed how this graph was influenced greatly on the artists personal opinion and unique style rather than stale facts. I would love to have this diagram blown up on my wall to examine it closer, as I'm sure there is more to discover.
Links and Causal Arrows
At first glance the chart with many arrows was confusing, but after realizing that it was a map documenting the different changes in art I was able to understand it better. The use of arrows, dates, typography, and the colors red and black play a significant role in this map. If one of these elements were missing the chart would not work as cohesively.
In the reading it states that, "the idea is a curatorial map of historically ordered rooms in a metaphorical museum... consider all the arrows flowing in and out of CUBISM, a huge room with the largest label." Once reading this I began to see the flow of the "different rooms" and how they interacted together. This metaphor is not one I would have thought of right away, but could get to pretty easily. It is a very simple yet complex map showing influences and fluexes in art.
Later in the reading there is an illustration of a large tree/garden, it exemplifies the beginning of art and which artists where the most influencial. It also then give branch offs of new upcoming artists then and holds somethings such as subject matter down. I found this illustration to be very effectful, and easier to understand that the map with arrows. It was able to show the information with the different importances varying in size. If I had to choose one style over the next I would choose the illustration.
In the reading it states that, "the idea is a curatorial map of historically ordered rooms in a metaphorical museum... consider all the arrows flowing in and out of CUBISM, a huge room with the largest label." Once reading this I began to see the flow of the "different rooms" and how they interacted together. This metaphor is not one I would have thought of right away, but could get to pretty easily. It is a very simple yet complex map showing influences and fluexes in art.
Later in the reading there is an illustration of a large tree/garden, it exemplifies the beginning of art and which artists where the most influencial. It also then give branch offs of new upcoming artists then and holds somethings such as subject matter down. I found this illustration to be very effectful, and easier to understand that the map with arrows. It was able to show the information with the different importances varying in size. If I had to choose one style over the next I would choose the illustration.
Specht.N.R06
Links and Arrows
It was honestly refreshing to see Futura being used in a typographically sound way to depict a flowchart of Cubism and Abstract Art through time. The arrows act as immediate connectors between two different topics and the arrows push the viewer’s eye down to the title at the bottom, traveling through time visual while traveling through time actually (neato). I was at first somewhat hoping the cover would have been DaDa inspired and the arrows in the end have no meaning but I found it ingenious that the flow of arrows actually pertained to how one would experience a museum. The maps lack of information in order to understand it without prior knowledge is a bit frustrating. There is no explanation as to how the relationships between the different topics came to be or that the relationships differentiate at all. In this instance the viewer is allowed to make assumptions because there is little evidence to make sound conclusions. The cover is pretty type set with good intentions. The reading goes on to discuss how arrows and lines can be used to create relationships between nouns, essentially creating new meaning in comparison to viewing them individually. The meaning of the arrow itself is generic and is simply a visual marker of a shift in thinking. The means for distinction in line weight within the cartographic legends is evident. While trying to identify these roads separately one has to also keep in mind that they are all roads and should still appear to be within the same style. The problem also arises when there is too much clutter involved when trying to fit more information, such as the legend on the left in the reading. It makes sense when only seen in the legend but when all of the cluttered lines are set into place at once on the map it could/will create visual clutter.
“The correct reading of lines on a map, like words in a sentence, generally makes sense in context. “
It was honestly refreshing to see Futura being used in a typographically sound way to depict a flowchart of Cubism and Abstract Art through time. The arrows act as immediate connectors between two different topics and the arrows push the viewer’s eye down to the title at the bottom, traveling through time visual while traveling through time actually (neato). I was at first somewhat hoping the cover would have been DaDa inspired and the arrows in the end have no meaning but I found it ingenious that the flow of arrows actually pertained to how one would experience a museum. The maps lack of information in order to understand it without prior knowledge is a bit frustrating. There is no explanation as to how the relationships between the different topics came to be or that the relationships differentiate at all. In this instance the viewer is allowed to make assumptions because there is little evidence to make sound conclusions. The cover is pretty type set with good intentions. The reading goes on to discuss how arrows and lines can be used to create relationships between nouns, essentially creating new meaning in comparison to viewing them individually. The meaning of the arrow itself is generic and is simply a visual marker of a shift in thinking. The means for distinction in line weight within the cartographic legends is evident. While trying to identify these roads separately one has to also keep in mind that they are all roads and should still appear to be within the same style. The problem also arises when there is too much clutter involved when trying to fit more information, such as the legend on the left in the reading. It makes sense when only seen in the legend but when all of the cluttered lines are set into place at once on the map it could/will create visual clutter.
“The correct reading of lines on a map, like words in a sentence, generally makes sense in context. “
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