Byfield, Ted

Abstract:

Information design and data visualization are often justified with appeals to heroic formulations like “massive flows of data.” Yet when stripped of their data, they reveal a comically simplistic set of representational forms. These forms are almost invariably level, balanced in proportions, and measured; as such, they tacitly suggest that, however confusing or catastrophic the data may be, at least the enclosing framework is stable, rational, and manageable. In this regard, visualization can be seen less as a bold step forward to engage an informatic future than as so many emblems of a nostalgic attempt to distance and fence in “complexity” by means of naively simplistic forms. From the chronological diagrams that inspired William Playfair through the rampant experimentation with visualization today, much evidence suggests that the drive to create images of data involves an effort to create imaginary spaces into which observers can flee from anxieties about their cultural and historical position.

Biography:

Assistant Professor, School of Art, Media, and Technology, Parsons the New School for Design. Worked for a decade as a nonfiction editor for academic and public-interest publishers including Cambridge, the Dia Center, the New Press, and Zone Books. Co-moderator of Nettime since 1998. Writings have appeared in First Monday, Frieze, Le Monde Diplomatique, and Mute, inter alia. Awards and honors include Rotterdam Design Prize (1997, contributor), Design Trust for Public Space Journalism Fellowship (2002), Open Society Institute research grant (2003), SSRC’s Information Technology and International Cooperation workgroup (2003-2004), and Visiting Fellow, Information Society Project, Yale Law School (2008-2010).