Good morning all,
I'm passing along Johanna's outline and annotated bibliography for
Wednesday. All materials are available on toolkit, with the
exception of the Schneiderman. Copies of his book, _Readings in
Information Visualization_, are floating around IATH, if you're
interested in that reading.
best,
Andrea
---------------------------------------
Design Production and Generative Aesthetics
Knowledge Representation Seminar
February 13, 2002
Johanna Drucker
The first time I came to the University of Virginia, I gave a talk in
the "Digital Directions" series in which I used the phrase, "the
aesthetic massage coefficient of form." Curiously, that phrase has
not developed the cult following I had expected it to. However,
packed within the pretentious box-car density of that phrase are
principles I'd like to return in this session. Primary among these is
the relation between aesthetics as seduction of eye and mind through
the use of visual form as a primary site of epistemology. Or, to put
this in the form of a working question: What is the function of
aesthetics in digital humanities?
I've assembled readings from three perspectives: generative
aesthetics, graphic design, and interface design. Max Bense's essay
is the odd one out, but it's here so the how-to-design aspects of
this session can be pulled into dialogue with aesthetics from an
imaginative, artistic perspective.
The list of readings below is ranked in order -- if you can only
read one thing, read Max Bense's essay, though Paul Mijksenaar is
succinct and very readily consumed. The summary comments that follow
below will give you an idea of what is in each of these readings.
Max Bense, "The Projects of Generative Aesthetics," Computers in
Art , Jasia Reichardt, editor, (London: Studio Vista, 1971)
Paul Mijksenaar, "Visual Information" and "Graphical Variables,"
Visual Function, (Princeton: Princeton Architectural Press, 1997) pp.
28-42
Ellen Lupton and J. Abbott Miller, "Deconstruction and Graphic
Design," Reading, Writing, Research (NY: Princeton Architectural
Press, 1996) pp.3-23.
Jacques Bertin, "General Theory," The Semiology of Graphics (Madison:
University of Wisconsin Press,1983) p.2-13
Theo Mandel, "The Golden Rules of User Interface Design," The
Elements of User Interface Design (NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 199?)
pp.47-71.
Stuart K. Card, Jock D. Mackinlay, Ben Shneiderman, "Chapter 1,
Information Visualization" Readings in Information Visualization (San
Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann, Publishers Inc., 1999), pp. 1-34.
References and recommendations with summary remarks:
Max Bense, "The Projects of Generative Aesthetics," Computers in
Art , Jasia Reichardt, editor, (London: Studio Vista, 1971)
Max Bense's essay is important as a pointer towards the realm of
artistic intervention in digital media. A classic essay, from the
1960s, Bense's work was produced at the intersection of mathematics,
concrete and visual poetry, and procedural aesthetics -- an aspect of
minimalism and conceptualism central to artistic practice in the
1960s. (The "Information" exhibition at MoMA in 1970 was the first
summary survey of this work, which gives an idea of the historical
moment at which the first generation of digital art perceived itself
as coming of age.)
Paul Mijksenaar, "Visual Information" and "Graphical Variables,"
Visual Function, (Princeton: Princeton Architectural Press, 1997) pp.
28-42
Not as elegant in design as in concept, this work is most useful for
its succinct brevity and the economy with which it touches on
fundamentals. The distinctions of categories of visual information
and suggestions about effective means of communicating them
graphically are presented here in a useful shorthand form.
Ellen Lupton and J. Abbott Miller, "Deconstruction and Graphic
Design," Reading, Writing, Research (NY: Princeton Architectural
Press, 1996) pp.3-23.
The best, most serious and lucid of designer-theorists, Lupton and
Miller demonstrate as well as discuss their principles. The entire
book is expertly designed, and the lessons it presents in the first
section could provide a useful foundation for analysis of information
presentation in print format. They are not, in this work, concerned
with the electronic space of information manipulation or display.
Jacques Bertin, "General Theory," The Semiology of Graphics (Madison:
University of Wisconsin Press,1983) p.2-13
Dry as unsoaked beans, this outline of Bertin's approach to graphics
provides a foundation for analysis of information and its translation
into graphic form. This section outlines the entire book in
schematic, reductive form. The sub-section "A. analysis of
information" (p.5-6 in the summary, p. 16-39 in the book)is
particularly useful for humanists, since it provides a working method
for translating linguistic formulations into graphical diagrams
comprised of "invariant" and "component" parts. The page comprised of
the fundamental variables of a graphic system, reproduced in minature
in Mijksenaar, might be the single most valuable page of information
in any of these works.
Stuart K. Card, Jock D. Mackinlay, Ben Shneiderman, "Chapter 1,
Information Visualization" Readings in Information Visualization (San
Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann, Publishers Inc., 1999), pp. 1-34.
An extremely useful overview of the field, this introduction to the
visualization of data in digital environments serves as the synthetic
summary at the outset of a collection of papers that address specific
visualization problems, solutions, and software developments. In a
pedagogical situation, this work provides authoritative grounding in
the techniques of information visualization, but is utterly unself-
conscious about aesthetics.
Theo Mandel, "The Golden Rules of User Interface Design," The
Elements of User Interface Design (NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 199?)
pp.47-71.
Completely sensible, well-thought out analysis of interface based on
principles of cognitive psychology. Useful reading in advance of
designing an interface and crucial reading for critical discussion of
interfaces. Absolutely straightforward, how-to from a perspective of
fundamental principles of human interaction with information in a
digital environment.
Alan MacEachren, How Maps Are Seen
Simply the best overall summary of theories of vision, cognition,
semiotics, mapping, and representation systems. Thorough, lucid,
reliable. Only overlooks its own aesthetics.
Visual Exercise:
Edward Tufte Envisioning Information or The GraphicDisplay of
Quantitative Information.
compare with
Robert E. Horn, Visual Language.
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