Critical Visualization: Rethinking the Representation of Data

Description

Information 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.

Peter A. Hall is Reader in Graphic Design at CCW, University of the Arts London, UK. His publications include Sagmeister: Made You Look (2009), Else/Where: Mapping - New Cartographies of Networks and Territories, co-edited with Janet Abrams (2005) and Tibor Kalman: Perverse Optimist (2002). Patricio Davila is a designer, artist, researcher and educator. He is Associate Professor in the Department of Cinema and Media Arts in the School of the Arts, Media, Performance and Design at York University, Canada. His most recent publication is Diagrams of Power (2019) based on the international exhibition he curated on critical practice in mapping.

Debunking 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 Davila 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 Davila 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 Davila 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