040108_medley & Kaye

visual: design: scholarship Research Journal of the Australian Graphic Design Association

    Volume 4, Number 1, 2009, pp.78 –90

Figures: a social application of infographics     Stuart Medley and Nicola Kaye

Edith Cowan University Edith Cowan University

Figures: The social in the visual is a research project exploring the potential for information graphics to tell news. To date, the research manifests itself in a website (http://figuresmag.com), tertiary level teaching materials, and a printed zine. This article details the principle aspects of our research. Firstly, it states our issues with the status quo of mainstream news imagery and dissemination. Secondly, we discuss our media choices: Why information graphics, and why the Internet? We will explain information design as a graphic form within a contested space: The form itself requires experimentation so that its users, including ourselves, can be more confident about what approaches to information design communicate what messages. This experimentation leads us to the Internet, using the Web 2.0 as a space for efficient and socially focused experimentation. Our research uses a reflexive methodology which sees us as creative practitioners within the space we have set up as well as audience members seeking explanation. We demonstrate how we use the Internet as a reflexive space in developing Figures. Thirdly, we will describe some outcomes of the research so far: Tertiary assignment briefs for design students at Edith Cowan University, Western Australia (ECU); graphics created for Figures have been published in Visual Language for Designers (2009); and, another design school (at the University of Otago, New Zealand) has published information graphics on our site.

AGDA Copyright: You may download a copy of this paper for your own personal use. This paper must not be published elsewhere (to mailing lists, bulletin boards, etc.) without the author’s explicit permission. If you do copy this paper you must include this copyright note. Please observe the usual academic conventions of quotations and citation. Citation: Medley, S & Kaye, N (2009) Figures: a social application of infographics, vol.4, no.1, pp.7 8 – 90 online at: http:// www.agda.com.au/vds/vds040108.pdf

ISSN 1833-2226

Figures: a social application of infographics     Stuart Medley and Nicola Kaye

Dr Stuart Medley Stuart is a lecturer in graphic design at Edith Cowan University in Perth. Formerly he lectured in design at Otago University in New Zealand. He has presented research papers at various international conferences including TypoGraphic2005, Lebanon, and the NewViews 2008 conference at the LCC in London. Medley has written articles on pharmaceutical design history for the Australasian Medical Journal, His graphic designs have been published in several reference books including Grids: Creative Solutions for Graphic Designers, Visual Language for Designers, and Logolounge 5. Medley has been a graphic designer for 15 years. He is a partner in, and the designer for, Hidden Shoal Recordings, a critically acclaimed record label with a roster of international artists. He has a PhD in graphic design/ illustration based on the paradoxical premise that less realism in an image equates to more accurate communication. Medley’s PhD examiners included the illustrator/designer George Hardie, Professor of Design at Brighton, who described the research as bringing image into the fold of graphic design theory. [email protected]

Dr Nicola Kaye Nicola is an artist and coordinator of the Master of Arts (Visual Arts) course at Edith Cowan University in Perth, WA. She has recently completed her PhD at the University of New South Wales, and published a book Physical/virtual sites: using creative practice to develop alternative communicative spaces. Her research examines the online/offline social application of visuality. She has exhibited and presented at numerous national and international exhibitions and conferences, including Transforming Audiences 2 at the University of Westminster, London (2009), and at the International Symposium on Electronic Art, Singapore (2008). [email protected]

Central issues with news perspectives

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Increasingly globalised contexts for information dissemination demand alternative communicative spaces to mainstream media that allow diversity, plurality, intersubjectivity and differing forms of interrogation: it makes sense that we should have a plurality of voices and opinions in the mainstream media rather than only hearing the views of a select number of corporate giants. We live in what everyone keeps referring to as the ‘Information Age,’ yet as our means and ability of accessing information have increased, the sources from which we gather it are increasingly homogenous, and the quality of information is questionable at best. (Monopoly: Media Edition, n.d)

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Part of this homogeneity lies in the form of the news—photographs and text—not just in the content or the sources of the information. One way this is being challenged is by alternative communication spaces colloquially described by Jeffery P. Jones (2006) as alternative media that “represent a wide variety of politically conscious, non-mainstream media forms”. Our research interests lie in exploring ‘alternative media’ spaces of interpretation and communication away from mainstream notions of news, information and public space. We are particularly interested in the visual (non-textual) aspects of news presentation. We believe that to some extent, regardless of content or editorial gatekeeping, the visual form of the news, especially its ubiquitous reliance on photography, contributes to the problem of homogeneity. A photograph appears to show us reality, since it is understood to be a record of something that occurred in front of the camera, but it records without explanation in and of itself. As Roland Barthes (1982) explains, the photograph “suggests the gesture of the child pointing his finger at something and saying: that, there it is, lo! but says nothing else”. We wish to explore visual forms that may provide more of an explanation of events. We also question the authority photography still has within this news realm. While newspapers openly credit photographers’ with pictorial authorship, the photograph is still widely regarded as objective truth where viewers tend to separate the photograph from the photographer (Lewis-Green, 1996, Art of the Book, 2006). Principally, we believe the visual form of news, that of the photographically real, tends to decontextualise the moments that the audience has long assumed are the news from the larger ‘picture’ that these moments happen within. As Susan Sontag put it, ‘Photographic exploration and duplication of the world fragments continuities’ (1977, p.156). Visuality, the realm of the image, should be contested. Our view of visuality concurs with Peter Dallow’s (2008): To use a term with a good deal of currency, we might think of the visual as being like an interface or cultural zone of social exchange, a space where the conventions in the construction of visual imagery and the prevailing or imminent social and cultural practices meet: a social sphere or arena where contemporary views of reality are displayed. Hence a notion of visual literacy could be the capacity to negotiate or “navigate” this visual cultural zone. (p.98) Our means of negotiating this zone is to problematise the photograph. Of course, other theorists—Sontag being prominent among them—are well-known for doing just that, but their approach has been a linguistic critique. We approach the critique through images. Hence we have begun to explore an alternative form for news dissemination: The information graphic. Information design, though a contested space as we describe below, is widely regarded as an explanatory visuality: A means to make visually clear complex models or relationships (Tufte, 1997, p.57). Typical examples include maps, diagrams, wayfinding systems, graphs, timelines and technical drawings. In addition, the information graphic obtains the same kind of ‘rhetoric of neutrality’ (Kinross, 1989, p.131) that an audience looks for in a photograph (Malamed, 2009, p.130), paradoxically while it is made up of images and symbols generally chosen from the other end of the realism continuum as we will explain. What has become central to our research is an examination of the credibility of information suggested in these apparently objective, abstracted graphics and the potential for aesthetic appeal to attract an audience and keep them interested in the information. 79 visual:design:scholarship vol.4, no.1, 2009

Information graphics, the internet and a reflexive methodology Information design: problems and potential

Mainstream news relies primarily upon realistic modes of representation for the visual aspects of its communication. Namely, video for television news and photography for printed news, with a combination of these media used on Internet-based news services. Since we are looking for alternative visuals to those provided in mainstream news, we are interested in visual forms removed from realism. By realism we mean those images derived using a camera to record light reflected off objects and people. We decided to explore images at the furthest remove from photographic realism on the assumption that this decision would highlight those differences in sharpest relief. The most realistic image (removed from the object itself) is the colour photograph of whatever the object happens to be. At the other end of the scale is the arbitrary graphic (Wileman, 1993; Gropper, 1963; Knowlton, 1966) sometimes referred to as the icon (McCloud). It is these distilled images that are the modules upon which information designs or diagrams are built (Buchheit, n.d.). Diagrams are the visual result of travelling along this continuum, removing detail in the process. Using a diagrammatic metaphor—the realism continuum derived from Dwyer (1972), McCloud (1993) and Wileman (1993)—we can say that diagrams sit at the opposite end from photographic realism. An example is shown at Figure 1.

Figure 1 - A realism continuum between colour photography (Robert Moses by Arnold Newman) representational and specific at one end and text, abstract and general at the other.

According to McCloud (1993) this stripping away of realistic detail allows the resulting image to amplify particular meanings in a way that realistic images can not. This suggests that diagrams, the kinds of visual material at the end of this process of abstraction and distillation, allow a deeper intellectual connection with visual material than is prompted by realism. At the very least, a reduction in realism must prompt a search for meaning beyond the representational. This could be described as seeing with the mind as opposed to merely seeing with the eyes. Malamed, in Visual Language for Designers, describes the function of abstract information graphics: Not only do abstract graphics enhance communication, they also enhance the credibility of a message. There is a sense of objectivity to the nonrepresentational graphic, similar to the way photographs appear to be objective renderings of reality. After all, abstract graphics represent facts and data, concepts and systems. People expect them to reflect accuracy and precision, believing they are the final word. In truth, however, every abstract graphic is inherently the result of numerous subjective design decisions. (p.130)

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However, information design is itself a contested space: We cannot merely begin using its approaches in an unquestioning manner since these approaches are debated among experts in the field. Different authors place the same kinds of images, linedrawings and silhouettes for example, at different points along the continuum. In other cases there are profoundly different readings even of the same graphic. For example, the

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graphic at Figure 2 by information designer Nigel Holmes’ receives applause from his fellow information graphic designer, Duncan Mill: This two-column graphic sums up the power of infographics. The exhilarating abandon of the floozy Monroe character grabs the reader, then powerful dynamics take over, all within the restrictions of an image surrounded by text, Holmes guides the reader’s eye around the data […] The use of fishnet stockings as the graph background is so clever, not only accurately reflecting the years and dollar values but also echoing the sexy visual joke. The typography is clean and simple, and the use of colour is eyecatching. (Agar, et al, 2003, p.45)

Figure 2 - This information graphic for Time Magazine by Nigel Holmes is lauded and lambasted by different design critics.

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The same graphic, however, attracts the ire of information graphic critic, Edward Tufte: chockablock with cliché and stereotype, coarse humour, and a contentempty third dimension. It is the product of a visual sensitivity in which a thigh-graph with a fishnet-stocking grid counts as a Creative Concept. Everything counts but nothing matters. The data-thin (and thus uncontextual) chart mixes up changes in the value of money with changes in diamond prices, a crucial confusion because the graph chronicles a time of high inflation. (1990, p.34) What seems to be at issue here is the focus of information design: Is ‘grabbing’ the reader important, as Mills suggests, or is accuracy of data presentation more pressing as Tufte argues? Can accessibility and accuracy be reconciled? Interestingly, little of the research into information design specifically addresses whether a balance may be found between these two potentially contradictory focuses. What we do with Figures, then, is experiment for ourselves within this contested space, using a reflexive methodology to determine whether we are on the right track towards defining diagrammatic approaches to explaining the news, and also what advantages such approaches have over realistic news imagery.

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Methodology Reflexive praxis and the internet

The Figures approach to research into information design is a reflexive one. In our research we propose information graphics as a productive visual tool for communication. Praxis is an essential methodology for Figures as at its core is the interrelationship of theory and practice and how it relates to contemporary culture. Sociologist Nick Couldry (2004) proposes that through praxis there is a democratic potential for the individual. It is through the act of doing that change for the amelioration of society can be facilitated. Like Couldry, we encourage public empowerment by engaging in practices to promote discourse. Figures has developed a community, via the website, printed materials and public projections to promote such discourse. Our approach to research on the Figuresmag. com website has been to offer designs and pictures for public comment. Each post contains at least one image—in most cases designed by us, in other cases chosen for its news currency—and a written context, in what we hope is accessible language, to explain the presence of the images. At the end of each post we prompt for readers’ comments. Couldry’s discourse is in constructing practices to enact theoretical goals—this is at the heart of praxis. A reflexive praxis is therefore integral to our research as it is provides us with a cyclic model. This model allows us to continually build on what has come before, where we reassess and critically interrogate our research outputs in order to get closer to our goal of balancing aesthetics and accuracy. We concur with Anthony Giddens when he asserts, “At each moment … the individual is asked to conduct a self-interrogation in terms of what is happening” (1991, p. 76). We are constantly ‘interrogating’ what we do, and this can be viewed on the Figures website where we regularly post questions for our audience. For example, we ask via the site what topics interest the readers while seeking feedback on our visual approaches to those topics. For example, on June 9, 2009, we asked: Which postings do you connect with and why? Can you spot any key themes that are worth developing? What are some issues that you might like to be addressed? What reflexivity provides for our research, is the underlying principle, at the core of the reflexive act, that there needs to be cognition of ethical, social and historical awareness, in order to negotiate the innumerable complexities in any given situation. We stress that, in any reflexive context, there has to be an acknowledgement of power relations, as cultural theorist Michael Lynch contends, “Reflexive analysis is often said to reveal forgotten choices, expose hidden alternatives, lay bare epistemological limits and empower voices which had been subjugated by objective discourse. Reflexive analysis is thus invested with critical potency and emancipatory potential” (2000, p. 36). We suggest it is these attributes of reflexivity that should be central to any social interaction. We recommend the form of reflexivity by Giddens, et al, as significant for our research in the way it demands a critical interrogation of ones cultural context—it is this that we are constructing on the Figures website with the help of contributors’ feedback.

Reader feedback 82

There are some commonalities of response in the comments on the website. In general the area of research meets with the approval of our readership, with a commentator describing our work as: “not only a fascinating area of exploration, but also increasingly

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necessary as we are witnessing the beginnings of developments in new means of language and linguistics, namely of a visual nature.” (Mind map: June 17th, 2009 at 8:56 pm). Other comments focused on the clarity of our visual interpretations of data: “Beautiful work team. Easy to follow.” (Scott Savage: February 7th, 2009 at 5:14 am). With regard to our seeking a balance between aesthetic appeal and accuracy of data presentation, our readers seem to understand this pursuit and appreciate our steps in this direction, but don’t hesitate to point out shortfalls in communication: “OK it needs work to decipher, which is not necessarily bad, but I am still a little unclear of the meaning of the positions etc. Looks lovely though.” (The Worst of Perth:July 4th, 2008 at 5:12 am). Even when this pursuit of aesthetic appeal took us into three dimensional territory, as with the ‘World Languages Graphic’ (http://figuresmag.com/archive/world-languages-graphic/) the readers seemed pleased to join us for the journey: “The idea of this being a physical info-graphic is awesome.. kinda reminds me of the games ‘box cover’ or something with the way it is shot also which gives it a nice aesthetic.” (Vaughn: October 8th, 2008 at 4:01 am) Where the graphics were heavy on data and text, and less aesthetically focused, this seemed to have a detrimental effect for some readers: “maybe briefer text, to give it the aesthetic of something interesting, it’s too flat atm. Needs to be visually enticing for me to go further.. too much going on for me.” (October 8th, 2008 at 4:09 am). Ultimately, we would like even the feedback mechanisms, like our visual critique of news imagery, to

be picture-based. To this end we are currently seeking funding to develop a visual wiki-like system which would allow our commentators to upload visuals that suggest improvements to our designs.

Outputs Tertiary education materials

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Our research has appeared as the basis of assignment briefs for graphic design students at ECU. The research informs the teaching of vector illustration software: Students are not just learning the tools but reflecting on the advantages of drawing versus photographic means of image-making. They learn that as realism is reduced, the designer can bring order to the drawing, suggesting relationships between elements through the imposition of colour, shape and line weight. One such assignment was structured in order to find out what students thought information designs were good for. We were interested to know if their approach to designing for news stories would confirm our conjecture: That information design could help to create a visual context lacking in photographic images. We asked the students (40 second and third year graphics majors) to reflect on what a diagram might allow for visual communication that a photograph could not. No student in the group reported having considered these two approaches to image as points along a continuum of realism; as alternative ways of addressing the same subject matter that might reveal different things about that subject. In response to the prompt, “In your understanding, what can information graphics or diagrams do?”, One student suggested that “diagrams show how things work”; another that “diagrams can measure things”; and another said “diagrams visually compare things like statistics”. When asked if these tasks were possible with photography students responded, “You would have to think very carefully about lighting so it was really clear what the photo was telling you to do”; “Yes, you can compare something like the height or size of people but for most things it would be very hard”. Students were again asked

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the question “why draw when you want to measure or explain something visually, why not take photographs?” Student responses included, “drawings and diagrams can make things clearer”; “you don’t have distracting backgrounds”; and “you can compare things that you can’t put together in a photo. Like a blue-whale and a building”. From these responses, we determined that the students had some intuition about diagrammatic drawings, but had not yet applied this understanding to information design. Given this general inexperience, the results (some of which are shown at Figures 3, 4 & 5) were well resolved in terms of what we look for in the Figures research. For their diagrams content, students were instructed to chose a news story on the basis of feeling strongly about the topic. This emotional connection seems to come from stories that are complex enough to be retold through information graphics. Complexity in turn often leads to a need to compare or measure such that the reader gets a better sense of the news context. We take information architect, Richard Saul Wurman’s lead here: The reader understands something new relative to something they already understand (1997). In this way students learn how to use graphing tools and scales as well as drawing tools within their design software, and begin to understand that data can be explained visually and accurately at the same time. The advantages to the Figures project is that a group of students can generate many complex information graphics in a fraction of the time it takes for the Figures team to do the same. In terms of our research this means manifold graphical experiments to study but also a ready audience for feedback as to the effectiveness of these diagrams. Through the help of a funded research assistant and student submissions, we have been able to experiment with dozens of new information graphics. We can explore a range of topics, but more importantly we can examine different approaches to information design and get class feedback on these as they are produced. From our research for Figures, we were able to explain to students that this balance between aesthetic appeal and accuracy was key. In-class discussions concurred with the comments on the website: An initial glance at the graphic should reveal the context of the information and be engaging such that the reader wishes to understand the information. The graphics need to strike a balance between being eye-catching and seemingly objective in order that their content be credible.

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Figure 3 - Study of personal wealth by Blagoj Micevski, shows attention to detail in statistics and colour relationships, but also a pursuit of visual wit (the piggy bank metaphor) through which to connect the reader.

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Figure 4 - Study of carbon footprint reduction by george Domahidy uses a silhouette to delineate the context of the information. Students responded positively to the accessibility of the visuals but found fault with colour usage. One comment was “Yellow things should relate to other yellow things, and same with red. But some red things here are positive while others are negative”.

Figure 5 - Greatest Rock Moves by Steph Cormack approaches visual wit as a subversive take on the characteristically serious form of infographics. In-class responses to this work were very positive indeed; it was voted a class favourite. Further exploration by Figures of information graphics suggests that even serious content can benefit from a humourous execution.

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When the graphics were submitted and pinned up on the studio wall for review, those that got the best feedback showed a combination of clean, precise visuals with some form of visual wit. This wit could be evidenced through a visual metaphor (as in Figure 3) or a knowing subversion of the dry form of infographics (Figures 5).

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Scott Savage, a professional practice fellow in design at the University of Otago, New Zealand, along with two of his project tutors, Tracey Gardner and Sian O’Gorman, have chosen to publish some of their student information design projects on our website. Interestingly, their marking criteria for the project also point to the importance of the relation between aesthetic appeal and credibility: - is the information clear and scannable? [ie. can one get an overview of the intent quickly] - is the information telling a clear story about your topic? - is the information graphic compelling, elegant and stylish with a strong attention to detail? - is the structure of the information graphic innovative and witty? - is the information graphic convincing / persuasive? (retrieved from http://figuresmag.com/archive/project-profile-duninfomaking-information-accessible/#comments) Again, the issue of humour or visual wit raises its head. The graphics that received the most positive responses in the Otago groups all demonstrated aspects of visual wit. Our findings in this area seem to concur with McAlhone and Stuart’s endorsement of the sudden insights promoted by ‘the pleasure of decoding’. (A smile in the mind, 2001, p.19). For the Figures team however, this visual wit raises another question. In the realm of social statistics and news, does visual wit erode the seriousness of the content? In order to test whether lightheartedness of graphic treatment resulted in a perception of implausibility in serious contexts, we ran a short survey via a web posting. A recent comparison on Figuresmag.com of two pharmaceutical designs for the same product elicited some interesting responses. Readers were shown two designs for the same product [Figures. 6 & 7]. The designs were chosen from Spain allowing English speakers to concentrate more on the difference in graphics and less on the written information. Readers of the blog were asked: What kind of words would you use to describe each design? Is one more appealing than the other? If so, why? Does one seem more or less likely to work? If you had to choose between these two packages based on their visual design, which would you reach for at the chemist’s?

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Figure 6, left (c. 2000) is the current Utabon decongestant graphic. Figure 7, above (c.1960s) is the graphic it replaced. Designs from Spain, designers unknown.

Eleven comments were submitted for this post. Seven of the respondents said they would choose the (now obsolete) graphic at Figure 7 from the chemist’s shelves. Comments describing this design included the words, “friendly”, “fun”, “cute”, “easy to comprehend”. One respondent said this illustration suggested the product was “easy to use”. Interestingly, two of the respondents used the word cute in a negative sense: They thought the brand less trustworthy and less serious because of this smiling face. Generally though, the comments suggest that humour or light-hearted approaches to graphics do not necessarily result in an assumption of a lack of authority, quality or effectiveness. Most who found the packaging appealing said they would also be happy to use this product.

Printed booklet

Through our research we are trying to weigh the importance of aesthetic appeal against accuracy of data presentation: The appeal of the graphics must not distort or interfere with the data but the data is as good as useless if it is not made accessible enough to understand or appealing enough to keep the reader interested until the information is decrypted. In this latter sense, we agree with Hans Rosling’s call to liberate the important data (www.gapminder.org) trapped in tables and lists the world over. One way we have found to explore this balance is through the use of humour. Neurath’s famous Isotype approach to visualizing social statistics was an attempt at objectivity and universality (Neurath, 1946). However, recently a number of designers (Pippo Lionni and Nicolas Felton foremost among them) have begun tapping this typically serious form of design for humour. One of our experiments in this area manifests itself as a printed booklet: The gas plant explosion which slowed the W.A. economy for many months during 2008 was picked from the front pages of the news of the day (June 2008). The West Australian Newspaper and the ABC news website published the picture at Figure 8. This showed a flame appearing to originate from a broken pipe—a perfect example of Barthes’ notion that a photograph can only point but not explain—The text of the article however, referred to the potential ‘downstream’ industrial disruptions that may occur as a result of a pipeline explosion. Over the course of several months, the stories pertaining to the explosion began to suggest that the relaxed W.A. lifestyle itself might soon become compromised. In our pursuit of the potential for humour in information design we decided that the stories could be retold through a set of 10 postcards referencing holidays and pleasant destinations. Figures 9 and 10 show our Explosion over the horizon book of postcards. We adopt Bruce Mau’s idea that a book is a time-based medium (2000). We have interpreted that literally. We thought about what a book of postcards might be once all the postcards are zipped out and sent off. The remaining artifact is a little flick-book which explains through animation that this gas explosion lit the fuse which led to the loss of hundreds of jobs.

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Figure 8 - This news photograph reveals nothing of the complex downstream effects of the Varanus Island gas explosion.

Figures 9 (above) & 10 (above right) - The first hard-copy article from Figures is a book of postcards. After all the cards have been removed, the stub becomes a flick-book animation.

On the reverse side of the postcards we placed statements intended to serve a number of functions. They are positioned as advertising satire, and in part as provocation, to hopefully engender a self-reflexive response in the reader. This posits the work within the lifeworld (Habermas, 1987), asking what we share with others. The statements also foreground the connections that are fundamental to information design that are absent within mainstream news coverage. A couple of examples are on postcard number 2, “It doesn’t matter really, we have a state filled with natural resources” and on postcard number 3, “Haven’t you heard we are in the middle of a “BOOM!”? Comments on our website about the booklet suggested that the humour does not negate the power of the data but actually makes it more accessible. Similar responses were forthcoming on a range of our web postings: That visual wit often helps the viewer to engage with the content without compromising the credibility of that content.

Conclusion

Our research appears to be delivering the desired balance between accessibility and credibility. Figures graphics have recently been published in Visual Language for Designers. The author, Connie Malamed, an authority on how graphics communicate, described the World Languages graphic so: Creates an environment with little visual noise. The designer uses sufficient detail to depict the board game metaphor and statistical data, but not enough to overwhelm or distract the viewer. (p.110)

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As we have asserted however, we are being constantly reflexive and acknowledge that there are some limitations to our research that we need to address. Our readership so far is small, so any survey results must be viewed in this light. We don’t know the cultural circumstances of our readership either so we don’t know their personal biases. For example, it might be that a community of visual artists might prefer the aesthetic appeal of a certain approach to the graphics, while a more scientifically minded community might prefer the foregrounding of accurate graphing. Similarly, in-class discussions of information designs were among design students rather than the larger community.

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Design students might be more visually literate than the larger community—perhaps prone to seeking out connections in an image made via shape, colour and line—or at least visually biased in their appreciation of this communication form. It is not inconceivable that a layperson may prefer tabular settings of the same information. Our in-class experiments in part acknowledge a problem with information designs as news visualisation. That is, that photographs are quicker to make and publish. However, in our opinion, the broad context that an information graphic can potentially capture can apply for the life of the news story. In this way it can provide an arena in which to view photographs. An information graphic could place a series of photographs in sequence (to reassemble the fragmented continuities that Sontag complained of) while at the same time showing the reader where those photographs were taken. It is visual possibilities like these that we will continue to research through Figures.

References

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Agar, M., et al (2003). The best infographics in history. In J. Arrea (Ed.), Malofi ej, 10th World Infographics Awards (pp.35-53). Pamplona: Capitulo Español. Art of the Book (2006). On-line video, retrieved, May, 2008, from 92nd St Y.: http:// www.92y.org/shop/category.asp?category=888Podium%5FVideo888 Barthes, R. (1982). Camera Lucida, New York: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux. Bounford, T. (2000). Digital Diagrams, London: Cassell & Co. Buchheit, M. (n.d.). Simplifying the Complex. Interview with Nigel Holmes, Information Designer and author of Wordless Diagrams. Spotlight, Volume II, Issue I. Retrieved March 15, 2008 from http://www.creativerefuge.com/pages/ spotlight5.htm Couldry, N. (2004). In The Place of a Common Culture, What? In Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, Volume 26, Issue 1 (pp. 3-21). Routledge. Dallow, P. (2008). The Visual Complex. In J. Elkins (Ed.), Visual Literacy (pp.91-103). New York: Routledge. Dwyer, F.M. (1972). A guide for improving visualized instruction. Pennsylvania: Learning Services, State College, PA Giddens, A. (1991). Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Cambridge: Polity Press. Goldsmith, E. (1984). Research into Illustration, an approach and a review. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Gropper, G.L. (1963). Why is a picture worth a thousand words? AV Communication Review, 11: 75-79. Habermas, J. (1987). The Theory of Communicative Action, Volume 2: Lifeworld and System: A Critique of Functionalist Reason. Boston: Beacon Press. Jones, J.P. (2006). A Cultural Approach to the Study of Mediated Citizenship in Social Semiotics (pp.365-383). (Volume 16 Number 2 (June 2006). London: Routledge. Kinross, R. (1989). The Rhetoric of Neutrality. In V. Margolin (Ed.). Design Discourse: History, Theory, Criticism (pp.131-143). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Knowlton, J. (1966). On the definition of a picture. AV Communication Review, 14: 147-183.

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Lewis-Green, J. (1996). Framing the Victorians, Photography and the Culture of Realism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Lynch, M. (2000). Against reflexivity as an academic virtue and source of privileged knowledge. Theory, Culture & Society 17(26), 26-50. Malamed, C. (2009). Visual Language for Designers. Beverly, Massachusetts: Rockport. Mau, B. (2000). Life Style. London: Phaidon. McAlhone, B. & Stuart, D. (2001). A Smile in the Mind. London: Phaidon. McCloud, S. (1993). Understanding Comics, New York, Harper Collins. ISBN 0-06-097625X, pp.28-31. Monopoly: Media edition (n.d.). Retrieved August, 2009 from The Peak: http://www.the-peak.ca/article/1863. Reflexivity: The modern world turns back on itself. (n.d.). Retrieved May, 2004, from http:// webpages.ursinus.edu/rrichter/becketal.htm Sontag, S. (1977). On Photography. New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux. Tufte, E.R. (1990). Envisioning Information. Cheshire: Graphics Press. Wileman, R.E. (1980). Exercises in Visual Thinking. New York. Hastings House. Wileman, R.E. (1993). Visual Communication. New Jersey, Educational Technology Publications. pp.12-17. Wurman, R. (1997). Information Architects. New York: Graphis.

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visual: design: scholarship Research Journal of the Australian Graphic Design Association MANAGING EDITORS––

Mark Roxburgh University of Technology Sydney

email:   [email protected]

Sidney Newton University of New South Wales

ISSN: 1833-2226

Katherine Moline College of Fine Arts University of New South Wales

visual:design:scholarship is a fully refereed, online journal that aims to stimulate, support   and disseminate design research with a focus on visual communication design in the Australian   context. The journal seeks particularly to encourage contributions that speak to, and on behalf   of, the visual communication design industry in Australasia. The aim is to include contributions from students, practitioners and academics. A range of research approaches, methods and forms   of presentation is anticipated.     visual:design:scholarship is published online continuously, as articles become available.   All of the articles in any given calendar year will comprise a separate volume. Special editions   will be published as additional numbers within each volume. Types of Contribution Refereed Articles (minimum 3,000–5,000 words or equivalent, no maximum). Original and previously unpublished scholarship in visual communication design of a research or developmental nature, inclusing: case studies, student dissertations, minor theses, research reports, new methodologies, substantial position state-ments, reflective analyses, critical reviews, visual essays, experimental practice and curriculum developments. This is an opportunity to have a scholarly work internationally blind refereed for academic publication. Format Requirements We are interested in a variety of formats for refereed articles. All submissions require the following: • a separate page indicating a Title for the article/statement/ view. the Full Name for each Author with their current affiliations, a Contact Address listing email and telephone details. Please avoid the identification of authors within the manuscript. • an abstract or short summary of 100–200 words. • 3–6 keywords that identify the main issues for the readership.

• the main document should be clearly organised with a hierarchy of headings and sub-headings that structure the presentation. The style should be clear and concise, presented for an Australian graphic design audience. In general, please avoid the use of footnotes and endnotes. Referencing should follow the Harvard Style (reference in the text by author, name and date, cited at the end in alphabetical order), and all tables and figures should have descriptive captions (including source information). A short (100–200 word) biography of each author for reader information would be appreciated. We also encourage authors to submit examples of their own practice, student work or other examples that generally illustrate and support the tenor of the article. Such examples of work will be published along with the biographies. Submission Submissions should be emailed to the Editors in Word (.doc) format only. For other submission possibilities, please contact the editors. Email: [email protected]