David McCandless [Blog.1]

In David McCandless's series "Information is Beautiful," he achieves stunning visualizations that are also rich in meaning. with topics ranging from how the calorie count of different beverages compare, to the relativity of size of "billion" compared to more tangible amounts, his work is entertaining, engaging, and deeply thought out.

I chose two of his pieces: "Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom" and "What Does China Censor Online?" to consider How his works demonstrate cdenotive and connotative elements.

Each of the two pieces are very straightforward in that they are communicating tangible ideas that need less interpretation than consideration. McCandless displays China's stern policy of control over the internet by creating a silouhetted image of the country comprised of the very search queries and websites that are blocked. The denotation of what is happening with internet control comes across very easily after only a few moments with the image. Below the surface, the work itself almost taunts the rigidity of the policy, as well as plays with the silly (over-done) nature of the policy. It is at once a visually stunning and beautiful piece, but is also a "brief" of sorts addressing the highly political nature of control, and the sad but true understanding that even China's own people are kept from much of their own history.


http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/what-does-china-censor-online/


McCandless describes "Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom" as "Just a think-piece really," though it suggests a breakdown of "visual understanding" in a clear way. He sorts data in Maslowian pyramid fashion with "increasing organisation" as one travels from the base to the peak. From random bits of "discrete elements" in the Data field, to the "applied knowledge" of Wisdom at the peak, McCandless's offering is not only thought provoking, but accurate.

Connotatively he highlights various applications within each segment (like churches in the Wisdom category; code in the Data category) and overall, this exercise of his is an interpretation which seems to hold true for me in how I think about the allocations, but may not hold true to others. Particularly, his title "Hierarchy Of Visual Understanding?" necessarily begs for interpretation with its question mark. This representation which itself purports to arrange bits of data into a cogent image is limited in that it must be viewed by others who would arrange that same data differently. For instance, not all may tie such a linear correlation between the different sub-groups of "understanding." There is much to consider at the surface and much left open to consider and possibly rearrange as suits the viewer.


http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2010/data-information-knowledge-wisdom/