Blog Entry 8

I've been really drawn to info graphics lately. We were working on one during our second project for Design this semester and the more I look at it the more excited I get. There's a lot of things you can do with an info graphic. You can show lots of data, or small amounts of data, it can be objective or subjective, impersonal or intrapersonal. It could record an event, make a statement, or even be influential to others thoughts. Exploring this is something I definitely want to pursue.


Ahmet, our professor directed us to this blog, an artist called Jer Thorp, an educator from Vancouver, Canada, currently living in New York. Coming from a background in genetics, his digital art practice explores the many-folded boundaries between science and art. And has recently got some recognition. Not too long ago he did a work for the popular science magazine.

According to his website: "
Near the end of this summer, I was asked by the publishers of Popular Science magazine to produce a visualization piece that explored the archive of their publication. PopSci has a history that spans almost 140 years, so I knew there would be plenty of material to draw from. Working with Mark Hansen, I ended up making a graphic that showed how different technical and cultural terms have come in and out of use in the magazine since its inception.
The graphic is anchored by a kind of molecular chain – decade clusters in turn contain year clusters. Every atom in these year clusters is a single issue of the magazine, and is shaded with colours extracted from the issue covers via a colour clustering routine. The size of the issue-atoms is determined by the number of words in each issue."

This is an example of how a lot of data can be clearly presented, but in an aesthetically pleasing way. I think doing something like this for my thesis is both within my capability and something I'm excited to explore and research.

This may be a bad example, but this is one of my favorite examples I've found. Flow charts are another way to present information except in a more interactive way. I've been thinking a lot about interactivity because of what we're doing in design class right now, and this seemed to be a good merge inbetween the two. The user has to make a choice in order to gain more information. I like the possibilities associated with this.