Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Informational diagrams

Another master piece in the domaine of graphic representation of information. Best informational diagrams edited by Pie Books

Graphs, charts, maps, schematics… a collection of the latest in graphics that visualize complex information thus making it easy to comprehend. This wide range of diagram masterpieces from around the world documents the state of the art.

Shell

[The other's eyes] turn to me a liquid pool waiting for unforseeable disturbances. They are more naked than the flesh without pelt or hide, without clothing. ... They are more naked than things can be, than walls bared of their adornments and revolvers stripped of their camouflage; they bare a substance susceptible and vulnerable. Their nudity exposes them to whatever message I may want to impose, whatever offense I can contrive - Alphonso Lingis, Foreign Bodies, p171.

In shell, I tailored a plastic envelop of a human body, envelop that is then discarded. The plastic fabric is carved with textural information. Its transparence resembles a ghost, its undefined junctions and closed top suggest a metamorphosis rather than a piece of clothing. It is an object that has been depersonalized by being discarded in public.

Attached to a long stick, it floats in the wind, linking the experience of the playground (yard), the uncomfortable cocoon (the shell) and academic knowledge (the Widener library at Harvard University).

Social subjectivity?

Should we design for everybody within a consensus or should we find a new line of products outside of the consensus? Should we go for the consensus and define what this consensus is or should we rethink the interaction with products itself? When researching on interaction design and defining visionnary work, I found the following quote to be inspiring:

Is it really so sad and dangerous to be fed up with seeing with your eyes, breathing with your lungs, swallowing with your mouth, talking with your tongue, thinking with your brain, having an anus and larynx, head and legs? Why not walk with your head, sing with your sinuses, see through your skin, breathe with your belly.
Where psychoanalysis says, "Stop, find your self again," we should say instead, "Let's go further still ... we haven't sufficiently dismantled our self." Substitute forgetting for anamnesis, experimentation for interpretation. Find your body without organs. Find out how to make it. It's a question of life and death, youth and old age, sadness and joy. It is where everything is played out. (150-151) - Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, Mille Plateaux: Capitalisme et schizophrénie, 1980.

Monday, May 21, 2007

Visual Communication bible

The bible in visual communication Grid Systems in Graphic Design by Josef Müller-Brockmann.

A Visual Communication Manual for graphic designers, typographers and three dimensional designers. Considered by most to be the definitive book on grid systems. This book is a must for any designer. From concept to instructional, this book covers typography through grid systems used in design both 2D and 3D.

Richard Saul Wurman

American demographics

Richard Saul Wurman is a classic reference in information design recommended to me by Mirja Leinss.
He created the online content understanding USA, a celebration and a visual demonstration of questions and answers leading to understanding.

Information Anxiety

He also created a comprehensive online content on understanding healthcare.

A human dashboard

Interactive dresses

Hexagram is an institute for research and creation in media arts and technologies. They present “Indice de l’indifférence: Walking City”, an exposition by Ying Gao.

The vernissage of the latest exposition by Ying Gao, “Indice de l’indiférence : Walking City” an installation featuring her interactive dresses, will take place at Galerie Diagonale on May 31, from 4 pm to 6 pm with the exposition taking place from May 29 to June 9.