Description
Book SynopsisInformation may be beautiful, but our decisions about the data we choose to represent and how we represent it are never neutral. This insightful history traces how data visualization accompanied modern technologies of war, colonialism and the management of social issues of poverty, health and crime. Discussion is based around examples of visualization, from the ancient Andean information technology of the
quipu to contemporary projects that show the fate of our rubbish and take a participatory approach to visualizing cities. This analysis places visualization in its theoretical and cultural contexts, and provides a critical framework for understanding the history of information design with new directions for contemporary practice.
Trade ReviewDebunking the idea that data is ever ‘raw’ or unbiased, this book brings information anxiety to a new level as it goes deep into the underlying power structures at play in the assemblage of data and the motivations of those who amass it. Hall and Dávila explain how design’s focus on clarity and statistical accuracy can serve to enhance dominant narratives inherent in the data and challenge designers to activate their agency to visualize the kind of world in which we want to live. This should be required reading in any data visualization or information design curriculum. -- Thomas Starr, Professor of Graphic and Information Design, Northeastern University, USA
Hall and Dávila make a compelling argument for a critical approach to data visualization. Through a comprehensive survey of extant literature, a rereading of canonical images through decolonizing frameworks, and discussion of highly topical debates, they arrive at a rich examination of current projects drawn from a wide array of activities. They address self-quantification, smart cities, emotional cartography, and a whole host of specific and activist interventions in conventional data practices. Ultimately, they argue for visualizations that might create alternatives to dominant conventions and the oppressive power asymmetries of the status quo. -- Johanna Drucker, Distinguished Professor of Information Studies, UCLA, USA
With acuity and depth, Hall and Dávila demonstrate just how much history, culture and context matter for the design and interpretation of data visualization. Their book is timely and important, and will usher in a new era of critical data practice. -- Lauren Klein, Winship Distinguished Research Professor, Departments of English and Quantitative Theory and Methods, Emory University, USA
Table of Contents1. An Introduction to Critical Visualization Defining the field Looking at Visualization beyond Western Paradigms Alternative Western perspectives: Distributed Cognition and Humanistic Approaches
2. Disruptive Histories Positivism and Objectivity A History of Progress Critical Cartography: a 'Defining Moment' A Few Examples: Not a Canon - Haptic Visualization: the Quipu (1200-1532) - Plan and Sections of a Slave Ship (1789) - Polar Area Diagram (1859) - Great Trigonometrical Survey of India (1802-1875) - Data Visualization at the Paris Exposition, W.E.B. Du Bois (1900) - Community-building with Isotype: Otto and Marie Neurath Conclusion Focus: Anna Ridler, Myriad (Tulips) 2018
3. Making Data Qualitative and Quantitative Data The Role of Categorization Focus: Data4Change - Keepiton - Hear the Blind Spot - Perceiving Yemen
4. Data and the Self Taylorism Within? Comic Critique What is Normal? Biometrics and Risk-Profiling Challenging Norms The Examined Life Focus: Margaret Pearce and Michael Hermann, They Would Not Take Me There: People, Places, and Stories from Champlain’s Travels in Canada, 1603-1616
5. Data and the City Participatory planning: HECTOR Focus: Heath Bunting: Status Project
6. Aesthetics and Representation Aesthetics and Representation Representation as Translation
7. Beyond Critical Visualization Practice
