HISTORY OF INFORMATION VISUALIZATION I

Overview
1. Movement 2. Statistical Data 3. Art meets Science

MOVEMENT

Ancient greece

Athens, Acropolis with the Parthenon

Gothic

Notre Dame de Reims, 1218 (Painting by Domenico Quaglio, 1787)

Latitudes according to Nicole Oresme

Oresme was very much interested in Gestalt, the shape of things. In Oresme's thinking, a body is endowed during its movement with a particular qualitative form (in German 'Gestalt'), which is shown by the configuration of its velocities. Hence, a body moving at constant velocity has a form (Gestalt) which is generally different from that of a body which is accelerated constantly.

Nicolas Oresme, Tractus de Latitudine Formarum, 1350

Oresme also applied his concept of form latitudes to the study of music. Here he made a distinction between the loudness of a tone ('fortitudo', an extensive quantity) and its frequency ('acuties', an intensive quality).

Like we will see often in the history of visualization, a visual idea gives rise to several scientific revolutions: Descartes Kepler Galilei

Rene Descartes (15691650), Catesian coordinate system, 1637

Theophanes the Cretan, Jesus in Golgotha, mid. 16th century

Fear before him, all the earth: the world also shall be stable, that it be not moved. (1 Chronicle 16:30 (King James Version))

The Lord reigneth, he is clothed with majesty; the Lord is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded himself: the world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved. (Psalm 93:1(King James Version)) And yet it moves. (Eppur si muove) (Galileo Galilei)

STATISTICAL DATA

William Playfair, The statistical Breviary, 1801

William Playfair, Pie chart, The statistical Breviary, 1801

William Playfair, Pie chart, The statistical Breviary, 1801

William Playfair, Barchart, 1781

William Playfair, The Commercial and Political Atlas, 1786

Text

Oliver Byrne, Euclids Geometry, 1847

Oliver Byrne, Euclids Geometry, 1847

Oliver Byrne, Euclids Geometry, 1847

Charles-Joseph Minard, Cattle coming from different regions in France to be sent to Paris, 1858 Charles Joseph 1781 1870

Charles-Joseph Minard, Cattle coming from different regions in France to be sent to Paris, 1858

Charles-Joseph Minard, 1848

Charles-Joseph Minard, Travel in Europe, 1865

Charles-Joseph Minard, Hannibal from Spain to Italy, 1869

Charles-Joseph Minard, Hannibal from Spain to Italy, 1869

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps, 1812 Text

Charles-Joseph Minard, Napoleons March on Moscow, 1869

Florence Nightingale, Diagram of the causes of mortality in the army in the East, 1858

Florence Nightingale, Diagram of the causes of mortality in the army in the East (Original), 1858

ART&SCIENCE

Etienne-Jules Marey (1830-1904), Foto from 1870

Etienne-Jules Marey, Sphygmograph, 1860

Etienne-Jules Marey, Sphygmograph traces, 1860

Etienne-Jules Marey, Myograph, 1868

Etienne-Jules Marey, Myograph, 1868

Etienne-Jules Marey, Myograph (Reaction of a frogs leg while irritating with electrical current), 1868

Etienne-Jules Marey, Myograph (Freezing of the muscle and loss of function through increasing temperature), 1868

Jean-Baptiste Chauveau, Haemodromograph, ca. 1891

Etienne Jules Marey, Animal Mechanism, 1873

Etienne Jules Marey, Animal Mechanism, 1873

Etienne Jules Marey, Animal Mechanism, 1873

Photographic Gun, 1878

Photographic Gun, 1878

Raphael Perret, Bodycloud, 2009 Text

Eadweard Muybridge, 1830 - 1904

The Golden Gate, 1860s

Clouds (Study), 1869

Chang Woo Gow, 1868

Yosemite Creek, 1872

Panorama of San Francisco (Plate 7&8), 1878

Advert

Leland Stanford and Eadweard Muybridge

Edweard Muybridge, Horse in Motion, 1877

Ascending a Step; Walking,In: Animal Locomotion, 1885-87

Walking (Detail),In: Animal Locomotion, 1885-87

Occident Trotting, In: The Attitudes of Animals in Motion, 1881

The Experimental Track at Palo Alto, In: The Attitudes of Animals in Motion, 1881

Edward Muybridge, Zoopraxiscope, 1879

J.W. Gibbs Papers: Graphical Methods in the Thermodynamics of Fluids, 1873 and A Method of Geometrical Representation of the Thermodynamic Properties of Substance by Means of Surface, 1873

James Clerk Maxwell, Sculpture of J.W. Gibbs geometric representation of thermodynamic quantities (1873), 1874

Klein Bottle

Felix Klein, Klein Surface, 1882

Moebius Strip, 1858

Max Bill, Unendliche Schleife, 19351937

Naum Gabo, Model for Hanging Construction, 1950

Frank B. Gilbreth

Frank Gilbreth, Motion Study

All work motions, he contended, could be reduced to sixteen categories: search, find, select, grasp, posi tion, transport loaded, assemble, use, disassemble, inspect, pre position (for next operation), release load, transport empty, wait (unavoidable delay), wait (avoidable delay), and rest (for overcom ing fatigue). By analyzing micromotion film or chronocycle graphs, the therbligs could be identified and plotted on "simultan eous cycle motion" or "simo" charts. The simo chart listed horizontally the parts of the body arms, legs, trunk, and head with subdivisions (for example, the upper and lower arm, wrist, thumb, fingers, and palm). The vertical axis displayed elapsed time. By assigning each therblig a color and symbol, Gilbreth could chart each body part's motion over time, producing a clear visualization of the relationships between the therbligs.

Frank Gilbreth, Motion Study

Frank Gilbreth, Motion Study

Wassily Kandinsky, 1926

Harold Edgerton

Harold Edgerton, Rapatronic Photography

Harold Edgerton, Rapatronic camera with magneto-optic shutter, type CA-1 1, ca. 1950

Harold Edgerton, Rapatronic camera with magneto-optic shutter, type CA-1 1, ca. 1950

Read: Laszlo Moholy-Nagy Vision In Motion Martin Corbett What To Do With The Temps Perdu ? Geometric Chronophotography And The Thin-Slicing Of The Unconscious

End Of GRAPHICAL REPRESENTATION OF INFORMATION I